What Are Acerola Cherries, and Why Should We Eat ‘Em? Barbados cherries, also called acerola cherries, are living the life we all wish we were living right now. They’re bright plants native to tropical regions of the Western Hemisphere; imagine spending all day on the beach, just growing. The shrublike plant on which the cherries…

Smooth Like Avocado: What is the Alligator Pear? I must admit, I’ve never heard the avocado called the alligator pear. The avocado, an evergreen tree, belongs to the laurel nobilis family. Originating in south-central Mexico and Guatemala, this fruit is also called the alligator pear or butter fruit. Avocado trees self-pollinate, and the high-fat content…

The Most Sub-Lime Fruit By Jaanu   People have known for many years and years that limes are extremely healthy fruits. Sailors, for instance, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries, found that their recurring ailments of rashes, sores, aching fatigue, and bleeding in the gums were cured the more they ate limes. They deduced…

A Plum, Not a Prune Plums are much more closely related to prunes that you might think. Officially, any   tree or shrub in the genus Prunus are considered plum trees/shrubs. Popular, refreshing dessert fruits, plums are eating fresh and incorporated into a wide variety of sweets and pastries. Certain plums can be dehydrated into…

Beetroot Vadai: Crispy, Delicious Fritters to Soothe All Winter Jitters Even a proven beet cynic like me adores these delicious, crunchy vadais (singular vadai). If you’re looking for a great way to make everyone, including kids, consume beets, then look no further than my grandmother’s go-to beetroot vadai recipe. Made with lentils and fried to…

Apricots? More like Aprigoats              Apricots are early-ripening fruits mostly cultivated in temperate regions around the world. In many ways, they’re quite like plums. Apricots can be eaten fresh, dried, canned, or cooked. The fruit itself is smooth with a large pit that has a hard nut with a seed inside. Apricots typically run yellowish orange…

         Jack(fruit) and Jill Went Up the Hill    Yes, this title doesn’t make sense! And yes, we chose to use it anyway. Jackfruit makes us a bit creative like that. Artocarpus heterophyllus, aka jackfruit, is a native of tropical Asia. India is the largest global producer of jackfruit. This exotic fruit is…

Durian Fruit: Do You Smell Something Fishy… or Delicious? Since smell is such big part of taste, I was shocked to learn that there did exist something known to smell terrible but taste delicious. The durian, also known as “king of fruits”, is an extremely nutritious, smelly, popular fruit typically grown in Southeast Asia. It’s…

From Valencia With Love: Oranges Oranges come in many varieties – but perhaps the most summery and citrusy one, in my mind at least – is the fancy, delicious Valencia orange. Sweet and juicy, with an elegant Spanish name, Valencias were first grown in that Spanish city, before rising in popularity for their perfect summery…

Pineapple: Math and Deliciousness Did you know that all pineapples have a bit to do with math? If the pineapple you’re holding is a real pineapple, its spirals will follow the Fibonacci sequence of numbers. Inexplicably, pineapples belong neither to the pine family nor the apple family, but to the berry family. Native to the…