
Welcome to my series about specialty crops in Indonesia !
First let me explain, what is meant by specialty crops. Specialty crops are defined as fruits and vegetables, culinary herbs and spices, medical plants as well as nursery, horticulture and floriculture crops. During my trip through Indonesia I learnt a lot about the country, the kind people and also about agriculture! In my first blog series I would like to show how the Indonesian people use products of wild grown plants for preparing their traditional food. You learn about harvesting and processing techniques of natural produce for cooking Indonesian meals with delicious ingredients. – Many of these ingredients we know from our own kitchen, but others will be a surprise for you! Let me start with a rarely known fruit grown in tropical climes such as Indonesian Islands, including at higher altitudes in Malaysia, the Philippines and Puerto Rico.
Tamarillo (Solanum betaceum)
The tamarillo is a small tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Solanaceae (the nightshade family). It is also known as the tree tomato, tomate andino in South America, and terong belanda (Dutch eggplant) in Indonesia. Tamarillo is popular globally – especially in New Zealand, Ecuador, Australia and the United States.
This is an interesting fruit, that grows like an apple on a tree. But if you want to eat it like an apple, you will be disappointed as it has a bitter taste! The fruits contain a lot of vitamins and iron and few calories (only about 40 calories per fruit), which makes them attractive and valuable food for humans. One single mature tree in good soil will bear more fruit than a typical family can eat in about 3 months.
The trees are either grown wildly or in gardens or small orchards for local consumption on the Sulawesi and Sumatra islands. Consequently, the fruit is harvested by small scale farmers and growers and sold at the local markets.
So, what are the benefits of this fruit, if you don’t eat them like apples, you may ask? Well, when processed into juice, compote or jam, it changes into a very delicious snack, drink or add on for sauces, bakeries, breakfast dish and chutneys! Hmmm, it has such a fine and juicy taste, you will want more once you try. Why not? I recommend you to watch out for these incredible Tamarillo fruits and products – whether in your local Fairtrade markets or shops and even in Supermarkets it will for sure appear in no time!



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