11 ms·
Jackfruit could save millions from starvation
- shadeless 11y agoThe first sentence saying "this giant fruit" and the first image lead me to believe that it's big enough to fill a room. That was pretty confusing for a minute.
- jhhn 11y agoIt's big as a watermelon, but with a different shape. Their trees are tall, what makes dangerous to stay under them due to risk of the jackfruit falling over you.
- coreyoconnor 11y agoDoesn't taste like pulled pork to me. To me the flavor is bubblegum pineapple. Which is fantastic! Ranch 99 will have Jackfruit on occasion. Wear latex gloves while cutting. The "latex like substance" is in the white pith of the fruit. There is a lot of the stuff and it's really, really sticky.
- louhike 11y agoIt tasted like banana for me. But yeah, definitely not pullpork. I ate a lot of those in India, I really loved it with fresh mango (I never eat imported ones now). I remember we bought a whole pre cutted fruit with friends after a 2 hours walk in the mountains (close to Kodaikanal, a beautiful place). It was far bigger than the one in the video. The trees are really impressive.
- vram22 11y ago>after a 2 hours walk in the mountains (close to Kodaikanal, a beautiful place) Where near Kodai? Yes, lots of jackfruit grows there, some height below the town.
- sremani 11y agoYou are describing the taste after the fruit ripened. Before it is ripe (in raw), "stuff" when cut would look like pulled pork. From my little experience with pork, I do not agree with the conclusion about the taste, but it does look a bit like it. Jack fruit Curry, tastes Awesome!!! http://www.blendwithspices.com/2011/12/andhra-panasa-pottu-koora-raw-jackfruit.html http://www.blendwithspices.com/2011/12/andhra-panasa-pottu-k...
- logfromblammo 11y agoThe latex is what makes it a real pain in the ass to prepare fresh. It is also much easier to find in cans in the U.S. than as whole fresh fruit. I agree with the flavor being characterized as bubblegum pineapple. Maybe a bit banana-ish. I enjoy it, myself, but the rest of the family thinks it smells bad and tastes odd. It has never crossed my mind that it might resemble pulled pork in any way. And for a "poor man's fruit", it is certainly very expensive to lay hands on outside of its normal growing range.
- sweswas 11y agoIf you have a bad history with fruit allergies (I'm apples, plums, peaches) watch out with Jackfruit. I had a piece once and it was one of the worst oral allergic reactions in my life.
- billybilly1920 11y agoI like how the story reads like a 3rd grade book report on jackfruit.
- trcollinson 11y agoI was thinking the same thing. The title could almost be the click-baitish "One crazy trick to solve world hunger! You won't believe this fruit tastes like pork!" Fortunately I did learn a bit about a fruit I have never seen nor heard of before. So I guess it was worthwhile.
- schandur 11y agoOne of the many reasons I refuse to open Business Insider links.
- powera 11y agoThis article is a submarine ad for the Jackfruit industry, right? (see http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html )
- giancarlostoro 11y agoI live in Florida, and sometimes as I drive throughout the state and see the hundreds and hundreds (though it may be thousands) of oranges alongside the road I wonder just how many go to waste that could be sent to places in need, and then I wonder if there's other places that do the same... Most of the United States is uninhabited, so I always wonder how much vegetation is just sitting there that could feed others. Now I understand there would be a cost in transporting these goods, as well as other factors, but still... What if the same companies that sell you oranges could give some of those same oranges to the homeless? Or use a portion of their profits to (without deceit) send them to countries in need? Maybe I don't know enough about these things to really talk, but having fed the homeless once upon a time for about a year without the aid of government assistance I think we make too many excuses for things that really should just be done. Ah well, maybe someday soon we'll see true change that benefits all.
- mfoy_ 11y agoForget the ones by the road. Your mind would be blown if you knew how much produce was discarded right out of the gate, even from the farm, simply because it doesn't look quite right.
- tsotha 11y agoYears ago I watched a documentary on California oranges. They said the crop was basically divided into thirds by quality, with the first third going to the markets, the second third being juiced for frozen concentrate, and the last third was simply plowed under.
- loco5niner 11y agoThis idea has been around for a while. Gleaning provides an opportunity for people to help themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleaning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleaning
- yardie 11y agoThere is a movie from a decade ago called "Life and Debt." It explores how international loans and aid have actually suppressed the local economies of the countries they tried to help. For example, chicken breast meat is very popular in the western world. Once they remove the white meat where does the rest of it go. What the producers can't sell domestically in the US or Canada they export to developing countries at cut rate prices. This drives the local farmers out of business. Before donating fruits to countries in need (and can grow the same fruit) think long and hard about the impact that help might have on their local economy. In any other scenario this would be considered dumping and that country would be taken to WTO court.
- supdog 11y agoUSDA zone 9b or warmer. If you are looking for a versitile, exotic fruit with high protein content that will grow outdoors in many cooler climates, check out the pawpaw: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimina_triloba https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimina_triloba
- flatline 11y agoWe just had a local pawpaw festival, I had no idea such a fruit existed - like a cross between a banana, mango, and papaya, but growing plentifully at 42 degrees north. Apparently they have a short shelf-life - the fruit must be eaten or preserved within a couple days of being picked. But they are quite tasty.
- durkie 11y agoAre you talking about the Ohio pawpaw festival? We drove up there one year just for the festival -- super fun :)
- Tsagadai 11y agoMountain papaya (Vasconcellea pubescens) will also grow in temperate to cold regions. I have seen them growing in areas that get heavy frosts (but the probably wouldn't cope with actual snow). Interestingly, yellow papayas are what I would call a pawpaw and I didn't know that there was a completely different fruit called a pawpaw.
- vivin 11y agoNot popular in India? News to me. Maybe not all over India. But in Kerala, the state I am from, Jackfruit is pretty popular there and is used to make a wide variety of dishes. My grandparents house has many jackfruit trees and we always had jackfruit to eat. It tastes nothing like pulled pork to me though. It's mainly sweet and very slightly tangy/sour. Fresh jackfruit has a kind of "crunch" to it. I can't really describe the flavor without being self-referential... I mean, it kinda tastes like... jackfruit. Or maybe like pineapple mixed with banana? The smell can be overwhelming, especially when it goes bad. But it's not that bad when it's fresh. Oh and that sticky stuff is really sticky - hard to get off your clothes or your hands.
- louhike 11y ago> "Not popular in India? News to me." Yeah, you could find them everywhere in Karnataka and most of the states I went to in the South.
- danharaj 11y agoI think western writers have a silly perspective on India. It's more diverse than the European Union, really! How can one say anything at all about all of India at once?
- msandford 11y agoIgnorance that's enabled by the whole place having a single name. Europe gets different treatment because all the countries have their own names, governments, etc. The regions of the US are surprisingly different in many ways, but may not even line up with the various state boundaries so most of the time it's just "America" too. Probably not as diverse as India (I've never been, so it's just a guess) but still nowhere near as homogeneous as some European countries are.
- phaemon 11y agoWhat do you mean by "more diverse than the European Union"? In what way?
- hollerith 11y agoTrader Joe's has jackfruit chips occasionally. Pretty expensive, though, per pound or per calorie.
- solutionyogi 11y agoI never saw them at Trader Joe's but they are always there at Indian grocery stores in NYC/NJ and it is reasonably priced.
- vram22 11y agoProbably just taking advantage of the novelty / exotic factor. In India the stuff is quite cheap, at least near where it grows.
- harichinnan 11y agoClimbing up a jackfruit tree and carefully bringing the fruit down without getting eaten alive by ants is a feat of endurance. Jackfruit trees grow tall and the fruits are heavy, 30+ pounds on average. Also plucking the bulbs out of the fruit is a laborious task. This is truly a fruit of love to be savored from the backyard garden and rarely farmed at a large scale. Also eating too many raw bulbs causes stomach upsets in most people and is most commonly consumed as a well cooked dessert.
- number_six 11y agoIf I was starving and the only thing holding me back from eating was a few ants and plucking bulbs, I'd be eating jackfruits ever day!
- danneu 11y agoWhat makes jackfruit trees such a sight to behold is how much fruit is accessible at waist/shoulder height (along with, of course, its sheer size).
- titomc 11y agoshort jackfruit trees might be crossbreeds. The original ones grow very tall. The fruits can be harvested by climbing the tree and making use of rope to bring down the fruit gracefully to the ground.
- danneu 11y agoInteresting. My experience with jackfruit trees has been from the western coast of Mexico, so maybe there's a difference there. Though a google image search for "jackfruit tree" seems to show the trees I'm familiar with. Not very tall with a good portion of fruit within arm's reach.
- titomc 11y agoYes I have personally done it myself in Kerala State India. There is lot of ants which can bite , but not poisonous. Usually when we put up a small smoke fire under the tree , the ants will scram. After reaching a branch , someone will throw a rope up and I tie the rope around the jackfruit and wrap it around a branch sort of acting as a pully system. Once the person in the ground has got a good grip on the rope. I cut the fruit and the person on the ground slowly releases the rope bringing the fruit down slowly. This is useful especially when the fruit is very ripe as it likely to smash into pieces on impact. The rope trick is employed widely in Kerala to harvest this gigantic fruit from the jackfruit tree.
- tomswartz07 11y agoI'd love to see what could be done to these with some selective farming. Heck, a good number of years ago, this is what a wild banana looked like: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Inside_a_wild-type_banana.jpg/1024px-Inside_a_wild-type_banana.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/In... If some enterprising farmers can figure out how to minimize the seeds and other less useful qualities, then there's a good chance this will be a new staple.
- callesgg 11y agoSo why is it better than any other vegetable or fruit? Does it have extremely good energy conversion efficiency. (Sun light to carbohydrates)
- tmaly 11y agoI eat this all the time when I am in the Philippines. It has one unique property that was not mentioned in the article. Just as asparagus makes urine smell like asparagus, jackfruit makes feces smell sweet like the fruit.
- DaveSapien 11y agoSOLD!
- vigile_ 11y agoThe article misses some really important information. If you let some pieces of Jack Fruit soaked in rum for months... It saves body and soul!! ;-) Recipe from Reunion Island available if you ping me...
- personjerry 11y agoI was recently informed that the popularity of Ethiopian food in North America has driven the price of their bread up to a level where Ethiopian people can't really afford it anymore. While publicity is good, I hope such a pattern doesn't emerge for the jackfruit, so that it can be maintained as a cheap food.
- pmorici 11y agoSeems to be a close relative of the Breadfruit which is similarly thought to be a good way to feed people or so the tour guide told us when I visited the National Botanical Garden. http://ntbg.org/breadfruit/breadfruit/ http://ntbg.org/breadfruit/breadfruit/
- HeyLaughingBoy 11y agoNever had jackfruit, but I do miss my aunt's deep fried breadfruit. Mmmm.
- manishsharan 11y agoThis article presumes that India has one cuisine, where Jackfruit is avoided. This is false as India has several cuisines and Jackfruit is used in several of those cuisines. But if the article writer was looking for Tandoori Jackfruit, then yes, that is true -- there is not tandoori jackfruit!
- rpenm 11y agoKathal kebab is fairly close to "tandoori jackfruit".
- hownottowrite 11y agoYou can pick up Jackfruit at many Asian groceries. In the DC area, Super H-Mart always has it. It's delicious.
- titomc 11y agoI am from the Kerala state in India where this fruit is in abundance. My home has 2 of those big trees. About the pulled pork reference , I have had pulled pork in Arizona Phoenix where I work now. The unripe jackfruit do not taste like that. Just an "unripe" taste that's all. Unripe fruit has lot of milky sticky liquid oozing from the hives inside the fruit. In its unripe form , its used for frying , something like potato sticks lookalike. In its ripe form its mixed with beef and made into squishy form. Keralites eat a lot of beef,unlike other states in India. (where beef is banned) The seeds of the jackfruit , ( a single fruit has hundreds of seeds ) is used to make curry mixed with sour mango and sun dried shrimp. The outer casing of the jackfruit is re purposed as food to the cows. The jackfruit wood is good for carpentry and is used to make door , almirahs , windows in Kerala homes. Probably the author is just an author. Might not have experience with the real fruit and do not know much about India as is with many western countries.
- xtreme 11y agoJust to set the record straight, beef is not banned in many states in India, especially the northeast. [Legislation on cattle slaughter by state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_slaughter_in_India#Legislation_by_State_or_Union_Territory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_slaughter_in_India#Legi...)
- MarkSweep 11y ago"24 out of 29 states in India currently have various regulations prohibiting either the slaughter or sale of cows." That sounds like most states ban it. Also the grandparent comment just said "other states" without stating the number.
- Kiro 11y agoHere in Europe jackfruit is sold as a vegetarian alternative to pulled pork in all food trucks. I haven't tried it but I've heard it's very similar.
- shameerc 11y agoI'm also from Kerala and completely agree with this. Jackfruit wood is the preferred wood for carpentry when Teak wood is not available/affordable. Another important fact is, we don't use any fertilizer to grow Jackfruits. It's totally healthy and chemical free.
- milkcircle 11y agoOne of my amazing classmates in medical school is the founder of a company called Global Village Fruit [1] where she works on making jackfruit available internationally. In the Boston area her company has supplied numerous local restaurants with the fruit (Veggie Galaxy makes a delicious jackfruit sandwich out of her company's product), and she's done a wonderful job spreading awareness of the jackfruit. I urge you to check out the company and learn how you might be able to incorporate the jackfruit into your own recipes! [1] http://www.globalvillagefruit.com/ http://www.globalvillagefruit.com/
- DaveSapien 11y agoI live in Cambodia and have always been put off jackfruit by its smell. With plenty of other fruit I love, I've just never bothered to try it...till today. I shall give it a go this evening. I doubt the pork taste very much, as a vegetarian I hear that a lot, "it taste just like bacon", no, no it doesn't.
- vfdfv 11y agoDude, definitely try it. It doesn't taste anything like pulled pork, ripe or unripe. Source: frequent eater of Cambodian jackfruit :)
- angerman 11y agoThere are three very similar fruits I've met so far: - Durian (looks similar to Jackfruit, a little rounder, and spikier), which is very popular in Malaysia and Singapore, and has a very strong smell. It has a more creamy consistency, and tastes quite different from jackfruit. People say, it's an acquired taste. Some love it, some hate it with passion. - Jackfruit, I got to know this first in Viet Nam, but it can also found it in other places in Asia, smells and tastes sweeter. Also the reaction to it is less extreme than to Durian; I've seen it on the Seychelles as well. - Breadfruit, I saw and eat it first on the Seychelles. It looks more similar to Durian, in shape, but less spiky. Apparently it has a very short shelf life, but you can make great fries from it. It's very hard to describe taste. But I encourage to try it for yourself. (Or for Durian, maybe start with chocolate coated Durian candy, or Durian ice cream, and then go for the real thing; word of advice, if you buy it at the market in pre cut pieces to eat right away, and you do not intend to make it into cake or some derived dish, go for the more expensive packs, they are usually better, less mushy. You will likely have to get over the smell already, so taking the very mushy consistency out of the equation, may make for a slightly more pleasant introduction to Durian. Jackfruit on the other hand is pretty easy, I would say. Just pay attention to get fresh, not squishy (e.g. they are too ripe, or old) pieces.
- plaguuuuuu 11y agoJackfruit is widely eaten in Asia. It's delicious and ... yeah, it's a fucking fruit, so it could technically feed hungry people. For the record, it doesn't take like pulled pork... in any respect whatsoever... Durian - good luck getting anyone to eat the bloody thing. I love it, but it's an acquired taste.
- jpatokal 11y agoThe unripe fruit tastes very different from the ripe fruit. It's common in Indonesia as well, where gudeg (unripe jackfruit curry) is the unofficial dish of Yogyakarta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gudeg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gudeg
- kefka 11y agoSigh. I live in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. And our local grocer (Kroger) has Jackfruit. It's $5/lb and the pod is around 6-10 lbs. They had one on sale, and I bought it, only knowing the name. The thing was pretty good, given I knew very little about preparation. One thing though, is use olive oil liberally. The latex it gives off is sticky as hell. Not even soap will get it to release.
- sonabinu 11y agoDe-skining the jackfruit is an art. You liberally apply coconut/olive oil on your hands and then get to the fruit !!! Hope you enjoy it more next time :)
- vfdfv 11y agoIt's very prevalent here in Cambodia too. One of my favourites fruits, and it in NO WAY tastes like pulled pork when it's unripe. I actually prefer it slightly unripe, since it can quickly become exceedingly gooey and sweet.
- cyberjunkie 11y agoMy ancestral home is Mangalore, so I've been there qutie often. The jackrfuit is my favorite fruit! Once you rip it open, removing the compartments is relatively easy. The seed is easier to remove. It's one of those fruits that is incredibly sweet, tasty, and you can eat A LOT of it. It can be a meal by itself and you won't feel sick of eating it.
- fredfoobar 11y agoenchina saav maraya
- cyberjunkie 11y agowhat is my what? Sorry, Konkani speaker with nearly no grasp of Kannada and Tulu.
- somberi 11y agoVisiting Grandparents' in summer where magically a huge Jackfruit appears for the kids to get their oil-soaked hands dirty, and pluck the bulbs from the innards, and douse them with Ghee (Clarified butter) and eat dozens of them till your stomach hurts is a passage of rite for many kids in Southern India (atleast in the 80s). And add to scorching summer heat by toasting the seeds in open fire and peel the skin of the seeds and eat even more of it, makes me long for the fruit (and the innocence).
- jestinjoy1 11y agoI am from Kerala, the southern state of India where Jack fruit is grown in abundance. Traditionally Jack fruit tree haven't got the status of Apple, Orange.. Now with reports in media saying that Apple, Orange etc available in our part is made with the excessive help of pesticides, people began looking at jackfruit since it can be grown without using pesticides or fertilizers. Now some startups has moved into commercial production of jackfruit products like http://www.jackfruit365.com/about_us.html http://www.jackfruit365.com/about_us.html
- nitin_flanker 11y agoOhh my goodness. This tastes better than a mango when gets ripen.
- known 11y agoI prefer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income FTW