The Fruit Explorer Encounters a Mamey Sapote, Part 1 of 2

To All,

While sidling through Whole Foods on 25 Aug 2015, I was highly pleased to find a mamey sapote (PLU #4310). This fruit goes by a variety of names in Latin America; I will call it a "mamey" since that is what Pepe, who is from Cuba, calls it. It cost $4.99 per pound, and mine weighed 1.38 pounds, so the cost was $6.89. Here are some pictures from the Internet.

                  

The Plant

The mamey tree is often about 60 feet tall, though it can be as tall as 130 feet.The flowers and fruit have the unusual habit of growing right on the stems; we have seen this behavior before in the cacao tree (16 May 2015). Here are some pictures of the mamey tree.

• A complete tree. if you look closely, you can see fruit in the tree.
• A shot of a branch that shows the density of fruit.
• A close-up that shows both a fruit and the growth form of the leaves.
• A picture that shows the flowers and the fruit growing directly on the stem.
• Three pictures that give increasingly close views of the flowers.
• A close-up of a fruit.

                     

The mamey is native to an area ranging from southern Mexico to northern Nicaragua. "Sapote" comes from the Aztec word "tzapotl," which was applied to all soft, sweet fruits. The mamey is the national fruit of Cuba, where it is often grown as a garden plant or along a street. (It beats the hell of out Norway maple.) (This site and this site claim that the mamey is the national fruit of Cuba, and Pepe has confirmed it, but I have been unable to find any official statement. I was, however, able to confirm that the national bird of Cuba is the tocororo; see pictures.)  The mamey is also used to shade coffee (18 Jul 2015) since it loses its leaves just at the time that coffee needs more sun. It has been grown in Florida for at least 130 years, but on an extremely small scale until the Cuban influx, which started in the 1960s, led to large plantings. Thus, ethnic change has led to the popularity of this fruit skyrocketing in Florida.

   

If you retire to Florida, you will be able to grow this plant in your yard. If you grow from seed, the plant will bear fruit only after eight to ten years, and the quality will be unpredictable. (There is one case of a plant in an unfavorable location that took 42 years to bear fruit.) To avoid these problems, plant a grafted tree; you will get fruit in one to four years, and its quality, i.e., its genetics, can be guaranteed since it is a clone. Go to this site for tips on propagating this plant. You can buy one live plant in a 4 inch pot for $25 at this site, or you can get a plant in a three-gallon container for $69.99 (plus $9.95 for optional gift packaging with a green bow) at this site. The latter site is loaded with tips on how to grow this plant.

For three short videos that give you tutorials on various aspects of mameys (when ripe, grafting, what they look like), go to Pepe's Plants. (This is not my Pepe but rather some other Pepe in Florida; the first picture below is of the faux Pepe and the second picture is of the real Pepe. The Pepe clan apparently delights in picturesque photos.) This site also gives mamey recipes.

   

(Continued in Part 2)

The Fruit Explorer Encounters the Mamey Sapote, Part 2 of 2

(Continued from Part 1)

The Taste Test

Since this fruit was new to me, I went to the Internet to see how to eat it. This video revealed that you scratch at the peel until you reveal the fruit beneath; if the fruit is red, then it will be ready to eat as soon at it softens, much like an avocado. (If it's not red, then the fruit was picked too soon, and you were sold a bad fruit.) You then prepare it much like an avocado; you cut around it lengthwise, pull it apart into halves, extract the seed, and eat the interior of the fruit.

After I cut the fruit in half, I cut it lengthwise into six segments. I took a spoon to the first segment. I found that the fruit was completely ripe and very soft. I was able to scoop out a bite with great ease; it was even easier than ice cream. I took a bite. I found that it had a mushy texture with a mild taste. The taste was somewhat appealing but did not make a strong impression on me. I did find the texture to be a little off-putting. The consensus from the web sites, videos, and Pepe is that the mamey is better as a milkshake, so I decided to have the rest of it in this form. Here are pictures of my mamey.

• The uncut mamey held aloft.
• The uncut mamey on my cutting board.
• The mamey cut in half.
• The mamey cut into six segments, with the seed extracted.
• Close--up of the exceptionally shiny seed. It retained its shine even after being washed and dried. I hope to find a place for this seed in a future Fruit Explorer art work.

            

You can find recipes for a mamey milkshake here and here. Alternatively, you can watch a mamey milkshake being made in this video, which features as background music "The Ride of the Valkyries." It took only seconds to cut the fruit from the remaining five segments. Into my blender I put roughly equal quantities of mamey, milk, and ice, measured roughly by eye. I tipped in some vanilla extract, shook in a generous amount of cinnamon, and then blended the mixture until it was smooth. I felt like an accomplished chef as, with a flourish, I poured the orangey-pink result into a glass and raised it to my lips. I took a sip. Very creamy. I liked it. I think the experts are correct in saying that a milkshake is the preferred form. Here are more pictures.

• The rind after the mamey has been removed.
• My blender containing all the ingredients ready for mixing.
• Somewhat more than half of the blended mixture poured into a sixteen ounce glass.

      

The verdict is that, while the raw fruit has limited appeal for me, I am a huge fan of the mamey milkshake. At $6.89 for what amounts to two medium shakes, however, this is a treat for special occasions rather than an everyday experience. The vanilla and especially the cinnamon really improved it, so I suggest that you add your favorite spices with a heavy hand.

Party Tip

Your party tip is to let your guests engage in hands-on discovery of the possibilities of mamey milkshakes. Lay out a supply of mamey, milk, condensed milk, salt, sugar, ice, cinnamon, vanilla extract, nutmeg, and whatever other spices you have on hand. Also, make available several blenders and a half dozen recipes for mamey milkshakes, which you can find on the Internet (some are given above). Exhort your guests to make a series of experimental, two-ounce milkshakes. (This is a quarter of a small glass.) Your guests will soon be acting like research chemists as they try varying mixes of ingredients, taste the result, and try something different. Your guests will soon zero in on what they like best, and when they see that others like different mixes, it will be a lesson in multiculturalism. Your guests will leave the party not only armed with knowledge of how to make a scrumptious taste treat but also with a renewed appreciation of the variability in taste among humans.

      

As an alternative, you could make mamey jelly (first picture) or mamey ice cream.

      

Travel Tip

With travel to Cuba just opening up, now is the time to go and taste a mamey milkshake made in its homeland before it is ruined by tourism. The real Cuba is available now, but as the Cuban hospitality industry starts to adjust to tourists, it is only a matter of time until mamey milkshakes become indistinguishable from milkshakes sold by McDonald's. 

(Here is the experience that underlies this travel tip. In 1978 I spent a month traveling in South America with Pepe and Maria. Why go to South America instead of Europe? Maria argued that Europe was already fully developed and was not going to change; nothing would be lost by going to Europe later. South America, in contrast, had not yet fully developed, so it paid to go before it was altered by development. With the benefit of nearly forty years of hindsight, I can see that Maria was correct. Here is an example. 

(We spent the night of 14 Aug 1978 in Cuzco and got up at 4:00 a.m. to catch the train to Machu Picchu. We spent all day climbing around the place (see picture). At the end of the day, everyone else got back on the train and returned to Cuzco. Instead, taking advantage of Maria's knowledge of the area, we hiked a mile down the train track to Aguas Calientes ("Hot Waters"), where we got a room at the only hotel in town; it bore a strong resemblance to a prison cell with its cinder block construction and 20 watt bulb, which only burned for a four hours each night when they turned on the generator. 

(We decided to go visit the eponymous thermal baths. Someone at the hotel vaguely pointed out a path, which we walked down. We walked and walked and saw no thermal baths and no signs. It was getting dark. Not even sure if we were even on the right path, we discussed whether we should turn back. After walking for twenty minutes we were on the verge of giving up when the thermal baths came into view. We quickly changed. When we eased ourselves into the pool of hot water and felt the warm bubbles welling up from the sandy bottom and running up our legs, after getting up at 4:00 a.m., after clambering about Machu Picchu, after hiking down the railroad track, the hot water provided perfect relaxation. In fact, for me, it was the highlight of the trip. Warm, soothing, healing. You just float and let yourself go, standing on warm sand. You turn philosophical: What is life but a search for the perfect thermal bath? The admission fee was ten soles, i.e., seven cents. 

(We nearly missed the thermal baths, however, because Aguas Calientes was underdeveloped without signs or a clearly marked path. That was 1978. Now Aguas Calientes has a five-star hotel. (For the nights I checked at the Inkaterra Machu Picchu Hotel in Aguas Calientes (pictured below), it was $602 per night. I believe that Pepe, Maria, and I paid $3 each per night.). I talked to someone who had recently visited Aguas Calientes, and they said that no one now visits the thermal baths; Trip Advisor scares tourists away from the thermal baths by describing them as "...murky...not clean...unattractive." First conclusion: Underdevelopment, while not perfect, is better than overdevelopment. Second conclusion: Go to Cuba and get your mamey milkshake before it starts catering to Americans.)

Final Words on Mamey

In heaven the Elect sit around sipping mamey milkshakes in between eating cherry pies. I can't put my hand on the passage in the Bible that promises this, but I'm sure it's in there somewhere; this probably explains why Christianity has done so well.

Rick

The Fruit Explorer Encounters Figs, Part 1 of 3

To All,

To my surprise, Stop&Shop had for sale a half-pound package of figs for $4.99. This means that, on a per pound basis, figs tie rambutan (21 Sep 2014) for the most expensive fruit I have encountered. 

Figs do not play a prominent role in American life. Other than Fig Newtons and the phrase "flying fig," the average Americans rarely come in contact with them. Figs were not even mentioned in "Ahab the Arab." 

The Plant

The figs are in the genus Ficus in the family Moraceae, the mulberry family. Remember that this family also has given us jack fruit (4 Aug 2014) and breadfruit (9 May 2015). There are many different types of figs; the common fig, which we eat, is Ficus carica. 

The fig tree is usually between 20 and 35 feet tall. It grows in dry, sunny areas, and it tolerates seasonal droughts well. Below are pictures of the tree. 

   

While fig trees are not well known to most Americans, they are famous among botanists because of their absurdly complicated pollination strategy. In fact, explaining how this pollination occurs is one of the great set pieces of pollination biology. Here is the essence. For starters, the fig flowers are not open to view but are hidden inside little green spheres (see pictures below), which are about a quarter of an inch in diameter. By "flowers" is meant not the showy petals that we usually think of as flowers but rather the essential parts of flowers, namely the male part that supplies the pollen and the female part that accepts the pollen. The unusual feature is that wind and standard pollinators can't effect pollination since the flowers are hidden inside the little green spheres. Something unusual is needed, and here is where the bizarre life cycle of the fig wasps becomes relevant.

1. A mature female fig wasp enters one of the little green spheres. In doing so, she loses her wings and antenna since the passageway is so tight. 
2. Some of the little green spheres contain only female flowers, and some, called caprifigs, contain only male flowers. The female wasp can't tell the difference; she apparently enters one at random. 
1. If she enters a female sphere, she brushes against the female parts as she squeezes in and deposits on them some of the pollen on her body; to see where this pollen comes from, keep reading. Then she dies.This female fig develops into the fruit that we eat, and it contains seeds. (This is how the fig gets pollinated and produces seeds, but it's a dead end for the wasp.) See the picture of the fruit below; the ripe fig has grown and turned a purplish color.
2. If she enter a male sphere, i.e., a caprifig:
1. She lays eggs, both male and female, and dies. (The caprifigs do not produce seeds and are inedible; the female figs are the ones we eat.)
2. The male wasps hatch first. These are degenerate wasps that lack wings and other wasp parts; they look a lot like worms. They crawl over to the eggs that contain female wasps and mate with them, so the female wasps are pregnant even before they hatch. The male wasps die. The female wasps hatch and exit the caprifig. This is how the wasps are propagated.
3. As the female wasps leave the caprifig, they brush against the plant's male parts that contain pollen, and some of the pollen clings to their bodies. Therefore, they are transporting  pollen on their bodies after they have left; this answers the question left open above of how the pollen gets on the bodies of the female wasps.
4. A female wasp then flies to and enters another little green capsule, and we are back at step 1. (By this I mean the first of the three step 1s. G-mail's auto-numbering feature is gravely flawed.) The cycle of life continues.

This explains how both the figs and the wasps propagate. To improve your understanding, I urge you to watch the video here (3 minutes) or here (4 minutes), which do a good job illustrating and explaining fig pollination. Be aware that there are about 755 species of figs and about 640 known species of fig wasps with, it is estimated, between 1300 and 2600 fig wasps still to be described. Figs and fig wasps have co-evolved; which means that they have evolved together and that they have cooperatively evolved this convoluted pollination scheme. Figs are only pollinated by fig wasps,and fig wasps can breed only in figs, so neither can survive without the other; this is called obligate mutualism. The precise series of steps differs among the different fig species; in my explanation, I have followed the second video. If you want to learn more about figs, fig wasps, and all things fig, Figweb is the authoritative site.

            

Another video tackles the question of why figs sometimes burn your mouth and tongue. The narrator picks a fig from a tree, and latex oozes from the wound. (Latex is a white, milky material; think jack fruit, milkweed, and dandelion.) This latex, which is an enzyme that dissolves protein, is the plant's natural defense against predators, and it ensures that they don't eat under-ripe figs. (This is another example of the way that plants manipulate animals, previously discussed in "The Ecology of Sweet and Sour" in the e-mail of 12 June 2015.) Once the fig ripens on the tree, the latex goes away. The problem is that commercially grown figs are picked before they are ripe, so there is often latex present in the figs that you buy in stores. It is this latex that can produce a burning sensation. Also, traditional healers use this latex to remove warts and corns. As the explanation of the fig wasp life cycle above points out, dead wasp bodies are left inside the figs; the latex, in addition to repelling herbivores, also breaks down the dead wasp bodies into healthful protein, so the wasp carcasses become part of the fruit and present no hazard to humans.

Once the figs are ripe and no longer harbor latex, they are often an important food for birds and other animals, and figs are propagated when these animals disperse its seeds after eating the fruit.

Figs can also be propagated by cuttings. An alternate way is to bend a branch over until it touches the ground, tie it in that position, scratch it where it touches the ground to expose the inner bark, let time pass so that it takes root where it touches the ground, cut the bent branch, and you have an independent fig plant.

A notable feature of the fig tree is that its taproot can go deep, force its way through cracks in rocks, and otherwise search relentlessly for water; this is what makes it drought-resistant. This root brings up water and tends to cool the micro-climate in the vicinity of the fig tree, and animals like to relax in its shade. This aggressive root, however, makes the fig an unsuitable tree in an urban setting since it buckles sidewalks and otherwise interferes with structures. 

There is evidence that figs were grown by humans in the period 9400-9200 B.C. It is possible that figs were domesticated prior to wheat, barley, and beans, and were, in fact, the very first plant that was domesticated.

The ancient Romans liked to feed figs to geese in the production of a primitive foie gras.

Tasting Figs

The pictures below document my showdown with the figs.

• The seven figs purchased. 
• A close up of a fig showing its stem.
• Another close-up after I have yanked out the stem. Not only is the stem hard and inedible, but it is likely to harbor latex. Always remove the stem before eating.
• A fig cut in half. I cut all my figs in two before eating them. For my first fig, I scooped the meat out of one of the halves with a spoon since the peel, though edible, sometimes has latex. Dropping my fear of latex, I popped the other half, including peel, into my mouth. Nothing bad happened, so I ate five more figs, peel and all. I threw one of my figs away since it was over-ripe.
• The remains of my fig feast. You see the one hollowed half and the six stems.

            

As I ate my first fig, I was prepared to compare its taste to that of a Fig Newton since that would be the only reference point for most of my readers, In fact, there was no taste at all. I worked my way through six figs and found not the slightest taste. The texture was not off-putting but was nothing special. In short, I ate five bucks worth of figs in three minutes and got no pleasure from it.

The verdict: Since I could detect no taste, there seems to be no reason to eat this fabulously expensive fruit. (I suspect that I got some especially bland figs. I will be watching for another source and will give them a second chance. Also, I should mention that I bought and ate these figs last fall. This e-mail got lost in the shuffle and was delayed.)

Figs in the Bible

While fig trees are not familiar to Americans, they are familiar in the Middle East and figure prominently as teaching tools in the New Testament, e.g., the parable of the barren fig tree in Luke 13:6-9, in which a three year-old fig tree that is not producing is given a one-year reprieve before being cut down. Not being an expert on symbolism, I don't get the point of this parable, but you can find an interpretation at this site. In addition, the parable of the budding fig tree appears in much the same form in Matthew 24:32-35, Mark 18:28-31, and Luke 21:29-33; its content is that when you see buds on the tree, then you know that summer is near. I couldn't understand this parable either, but for a couple of interpretations, see this site. One thing I do understand is why Adam and Eve used fig leaves to cover their nakedness in Genesis 3:7; it's because fig leaves are extraordinarily big and, therefore, cover a lot. This also explains why artists make wide use of fig leaves; see the statue of Mercury below. Go to this site for a list of 43 Bible verses that mention figs.

   

It seems to me that a fig tree is treated unfairly in Mark 11:12-14, when Jesus and the disciples were out for a walk.

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again."  (New Revised Standard Version, quoted in Wikipedia)

The next day, verse 20 reports that the fig tree had withered to the roots. It seems to me that Jesus, who is supposed to be a model of restraint, was being intemperate in cursing a fig tree for not having figs even though it was not fig season. I guess this fig tree put Jesus into a bad mood since verses 15-19 record how, after leaving it, he spent the rest of the day flying into a rage and casting the money changers and pigeon dealers from the temple.

It turns out that when the Bible refers to the sycomore tree, it does not mean the sycamore tree that we are familiar with, which has mottled bark and a spiky, ball-like fruit; see the pictures below of the sycamore tree in front of the house next door to Mike and its fruit. (You can see my white Toyota in the background; you last saw it surrounded by snow in the e-mail of 27 Mar 2015.) Rather, the Bible is referring to the sycomore fig, Ficus sycomorus (Note that the sycomore fig is spelled with a "o" in the second syllable to distinguish it from the sycamore. The King James Version and the New English Bible both use "sycomore.") In the familiar verse Luke 19:4, the rich publican Zaccheus climbs up into a sycomore tree, i.e., a fig tree, so he can see Jesus. This verse is often the text for Southern Baptist sermons since the image of a rich guy climbing a tree appeals to everyone. Southern Baptist preachers, however, do not carefully distinguish between the sycamore and the sycomore. They should since fig trees, with low-lying branches, as shown in the pictures above, are easy to climb, whereas sycamore trees, which lack such branches, as shown the picture below, are hard to climb. The Bible story doesn't make sense if the sycamore tree is your mental image.

   

(Continued in Part 2)