This one goes all the way back to day two of the whole planting streak, so it’s basically a founding member of this food forest.
The Basics
Eggfruit, also called canistel, Pouteria campechiana, is native to Mexico and Central America, in the same family as abiu and sapodilla.
Origin and Habitat
It likes warm, humid lowlands and isn’t particularly picky beyond that, which probably explains why it’s spread so easily through home gardens across the tropics, showing up now in yards from Florida to the Philippines, usually planted by someone who grew up eating one somewhere else and wanted a taste of home.
What It Looks Like
A medium tree, usually somewhere between 15 and 30 feet here, with glossy, elongated leaves clustered toward the ends of the branches and smooth, yellow to orange egg shaped fruit that ripens right on the tree rather than needing to be picked green. I got mine from a friend named Blake Watson and planted it right next to a sausage tree in what we call the breakfast orchard.
Uses and Flavor
The name says it all once you cut one open. The texture really is like a baked egg yolk, dense and a little dry and kind of sweet. Not for everybody, but I like it. It gets used in shakes and custards in a lot of places since the texture blends so smoothly, and in parts of Southeast Asia, where it was introduced generations ago, it shows up under names like yellow sapote or ti es. A ripe one gives slightly to gentle pressure, similar to a ripe avocado, and the flesh is naturally rich in carotenoids, which is exactly why it’s that deep yellow orange color inside.
Growing It Here
Pretty low maintenance once it’s in the ground. It wants decent drainage and doesn’t love being waterlogged, but otherwise it’s one of the easier fruit trees on this list, tolerant of a wide range of soils and reasonably wind hardy once it has a few years of growth on it. At the time I planted it I remember thinking about planting coffee in that same spot too. Still haven’t gotten around to it. Funny how some ideas just sit there for years. Same Sapotaceae family as our mamey sapote and the still-mysterious aguaí guaçú, if you want to see how the rest of this family is doing on the farm.
Pests and Diseases to Watch For
Eggfruit is fairly trouble free here. Fruit flies are the main real concern since ripe fruit left on the tree too long is an easy target, so timely harvest helps a lot. Root knot nematodes can be an issue in poor sandy soils, though that hasn’t been our experience, and occasional scale insects on new growth are about as bad as it gets on ours so far.
Kenta’s Take
It’s a quiet tree that just does its job every year without much drama. Considering it was one of the first two trees of this entire project, planted the day after that moonbow and lava glow New Year’s sunrise that kicked the whole thing off, I’d say that’s a pretty good track record for something I mostly forget about between harvests.