Today I planted a chupa-chupa tree that I sprouted two months ago. This is a fast growing tree from the western Amazon rain forests that can grow over 150 feet tall. Im going to attempt to keep it pruned as short as possible. It can take more than a decade from seed for it to start fruiting. A large mature tree can produce thousands of fruits per year.
We got to taste the fruit this past September when I got one from Yuri at his farm. The inside is a bright orange fibery pulp surrounding several seeds. Despite how fibery it looks it is really juicy. It tasted like a cross between a very sweet pumpkin and a mild flavored mango. You have to kind of suck on the seed to get all the juices out. This is apparently why the fruit is called chupa-chupa which means suck suck in Spanish. It’s also just called sapote which is a generic name for many soft fruits. The fibers of chupa-chupa totally get stuck in your teeth, but the flavors are refreshing. I think that this fruit would be great for juicing if and when we can harvest them from this tree!
Originally posted on 2021-11-29, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.