Beautiful Bunchosia & Giant Jakfruit

The Peanut Butter Fruit is a beautiful and unusual fruit tree, ideal for frost free locations. The tree has glossy green dense foliage down to the ground, making it the perfect choice for use as a screen tree. It grows to about 5m at the most and can easily be kept back to 2-3m with pruning. It is at its best when in flower and fruit which both come on together and smother the tree with bright highlights from the yellow flowers and the orange and red fruits. The fruits are very unusual and not the sort of thing you will find in the shops. They are bright red and soft when fully ripe and have a hint of peanut butter flavour with a rich sticky taste and texture.






Jakfruits are also starting to ripen here in the subtropics with the heat of summer. The fruits are huge and hang from the main trunk and the largest branches of the tree which have the strength to support the weight of these large fruit. The trees will also require a frost free site to thrive and are hardy and attractive once established. The fruits are pungently aromatic and delicuously sweet to those who aquire a taste for them. The pockets of fruit that surrounds the seeds is the most edible part of this giant fruit and can be eaten fresh, frozen or dried. The pithy surrounds can be stirred fried as a vegetable and even the seeds are edible and tasty when roasted.

Wonderful Wampees and Glorious Grapes

After the fabulous rain we have received up here in the Northern Rivers the orchard is looking sensational. I wandered down there last week and had a feast of wampees. Personally my pick is the lively tasting Guy Sam, it can be a little sour for some though, so those of you with a sweet tooth may prefer the delicious sweet Yeem Paye. Related to citrus the wampee has a tangy sweetness reminiscent of their larger and better known relatives.




The grapes are just beginning to colour up but are not quiet ready for picking yet, although they looked very tempting dripping with rainwater.