Today I planted a blackberry jam fruit that I got from Ken Love. In one of the fruit documentaries he was featured in Ken said, “If you live in Hawaii, all you need to do is to plant a breadfruit tree, a peanut butter fruit tree, and some blackberry jam fruit and you’re all set!” I planted this one in the breakfast orchard next to the sausage tree, the egg fruit and near the peanut butter fruit tree.
Blackberry fruit is a small shrub around 7 feet tall originally from Panama and Ecuador and over there they usually don’t sell the fruit commercially as it is grown mostly as an ornamental. This plant is related to gardenia and the white flowers are highly fragrant. They can also be grown in small pots like bonsai.
As the name suggests, the inside of the small hard skin fruits is an edible dark glob of jelly like pulp which is how the fruit gets its name. However the pulp itself tastes similar to a floral raisiny molasses honey and not really like blackberry jam. It’s a good thing though that we grow actual blackberries here too.
Originally posted on 2021-10-15, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.