Vegans, meat lovers and those in-between — everyone’s all abuzz about jackfruit.
You may have seen it in your grocery store — greenish-brown, huge, ugly with a hobnail surface — and wondered, “What the heck is that?”
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This healthy fruit has a consistency similar to that of chicken or pork and its neutral taste takes on the flavor of whatever sauce or seasoning you pair it with, according to MSN Food News. It has a stringy consistency that works especially well with tangy barbecue sauce, making it indistinguishable from pulled pork, the report said.
A relative of figs and breadfruit, jackfruit is native to southern India, but has now spread to other warm areas of the world, such as Asia, South America, Africa and, in recent years, Florida. As a raw fruit, jackfruit is said to taste like a combination of mango, pineapple and banana. Whether used in salads, cooked like a vegetable or used in a stir-fry dish, it can be both sweet and savory.
Jackfruit offers many health benefits. The fruit contains lignans, isoflavones and other phytonutrients, and eating it can help prevent serious diseases, lower blood pressure and slow down the degeneration of cells that causes visible aging.
Jackfruit also has B vitamins, including niacin, folic acid, pyridoxine and riboflavin, plus calcium, thiamine, potassium and powerful antioxidants that protect you from free radicals and can even help repair DNA damage.
One important thing to know when purchasing your first jackfruit is how to peel it. Separating it from its nubby exterior is a step-by-step process. The fruit contains a sticky sap known as “latex” that wearing rubber gloves will help you avoid, as will oiling your work surface and cutting knife.
It’s no easy task to grow jackfruit — trees normally grow up to 70 to 80 feet in height when grown outdoors and it can take up to 14 years before the tree starts producing. Jackfruit trees can bear as many as 250 fruits per season.
Since it’s a tropical fruit tree, it can’t tolerate frost, cold weather or drought.
If you live in an area with a year-round humid, tropical climate, such as southern Florida, Mexico or Hawaii, you could grow it outdoors. If you're above growth zone 10, you'll need to grow your jackfruit tree indoors — although it won’t bear fruit, not to mention your ceilings still aren’t going to be high enough for a mature tree.
Alternatively, you could grow it in a large pot kept outdoors in the summer and indoors in the winter. Unfortunately, a potted tree might never produce fruit, either.
So, if you live in the right growth zone and you’re ready to try growing jackfruit and are in for the long haul, go ahead and try it. Just don’t promise your neighbors to bring over some fruit next summer, or even within the next decade.