Roll out for the mystery fruit. Step right this way.
Yesterday, John, Phoebe and I took the train into town to attend the Cambridge Carnival International, a primarily Caribbean street festival in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
We got there a bit on the early side, so things were pretty tame when we arrived. Things got quite a bit more crowded as the afternoon progressed, though. There were lots of international food vendors there, which was exciting. (The vegetarian options were somewhat limited though. We ended up getting some so-so Indian food that had probably been cooked the day before.) We mostly spent the time at the festival wandering back and forth, taking some pictures, listening to the music, and looking at people. There were lots of non-food vendors, too, mostly in stalls. I went wild and got a tattoo. Well, I went very moderately wild and got a temporary tatoo. (Anyone want to guess what image I chose?)
At some point, we wandered past a woman selling mangos and some other kind of fruit, sitting on a chair in the road median with a stack of boxes. There was a little ring of people around her, buying this green fruit. I couldn’t identify the fruit as we walked past. Later, I noticed people walking around eating this fruit, and saw some green rinds on the ground (scattered among the bits of sugar cane that people had gnawed on). Towards the end of our festivating, I walked past this fruit woman again. There was no crowd this time. I watched her crack one of the green fruits open in her fingers, and pop the fleshy fruit insides of it into her mouth. She then rolled it around in her mouth a bit. I was intrigued.
“How much are they?” I asked, avoiding trying to name them. I didn’t ask their name. In part to seem as if I knew what I was doing, in part to keep the mystery. I bought a baggie of them for 3 dollars.
I’ve eaten a couple of them, still without knowing what they are. They are sweet with a slight bitterness to them, that reminds me a bit of underripe bananas, and which left my tongue feeling slightly furry and numb. The fruit is almost all pit, explaining why the woman rolled it in her mouth. It seems you sort of suck on the pit, and chew the fruit off. They are about the size of a walnut, with a rind that comes off easily, and that resembles a lime peel.
These are photos of some fruit I bought yesterday. I have no idea what it is. It is definitely tropical. Probably Caribbean. Can anyone name that fruit?
In related news, today was farm day for me once more. Meaning I headed back to the farm for my week’s CSA share. Like last week, the share included 10 pounds of tomatoes. I have been working on last week’s tomato haul, but still have quite a few left. (By the way, my photo of last week was of only a portion of the tomatoes.)
Here are my remaining tomatoes of last week, probably about 4 pounds. (Note: the small person standing in the photo is not a tomato.):
Below is this week’s full 10 pounds. (Not including last weeks remnants.) They include a lot more yellow and orange varieties. (Notice the large, orange brain-shaped one on the right?)
I also got some husk tomatoes, which were an exciting discovery for me. They were pick-your-own, and I opted out of them last week due to Phoebe’s mood. But I went solo today, and decided to pick-my-own. We could gather a pint total of cherry tomatoes and husk tomatoes. The farm apprentice gave me the low down on the picking before I headed to the fields, including the details the husk tomatoes are ripe when the husks are brown, and the ones that have already fallen on the ground are often the best.
I decided to try the husk tomatoes first, as I was curious. (I’m always game to try a new fruit or veggie.) I tasted the first one I found, and wow! Them’s good eatin’! I decided to gather my whole pint of husk tomatoes. These are tiny little things, though they seem to grow in other sizes, too. Each is the size of a large blueberry, and is wrapped in a little balloon of husk. They taste very sweet, more like a berry or a currant than a tomato. (Tomatoes are berries, after all.) These may also be the same fruit that is known as a ground cherry, and are akin to tomatillos.
These are the husk tomatoes I picked. I put in an averaged sized regular red tomato for scale. (Note that the plate in this photo is a smaller plate than the ones used in the big tomato photos above.)
collecting tokens 
intime i find the name of some fruit…i saw this page and i see fruit have green colour…this fruit for people like sour(acid).i cant findout the right name of that fruit but in my country,we call is green strawberry,..^^
the green and orange fruits are called genepas, they are from tropic islands
those green fruits are genepas….its a puerto rican fruit…i actually just had one not to long ago…really good
woops its actually spelt quenepas
its grown on a tree about 30m or so tall
the seed it the middle can be replanted to grow a tree
That fruit in Puerto Rico we call it Quenepa
I absolutely love those things. I don’t know how to spell it exactly but its a quinepa!!
Hello, i am from Mérida, Yucatán,México, that fruit is called “Guaya” it grows in the tree “Melicoccus bijugatus” in spring here.
Stacy from June 2008 was correct, it’ a guinep. Delicious, one of my favorite also.
in Martinique, French West Indies, we call them “quenettes” . People or children sell them along the roads, at car-parks, bus-stops, ect.
HI! I’m from Colombia and that green fruit is called “mamoncillo” is one of my favorites!!!! careful.. stains your clothes!!!! but I love it!!!
Mamoncillos.
Atleast that is what they are called down here in South Florida.
They sell them all the time on the street here :)
YUM!
it would be cool if they gave one main name to that fruit once it because more well know and popular. they should import them everywhere. they’re good.
becomes* err.
I’m puerto rican and i’m sorry to say that i don’t know the english name – but i will tell you the late july and august is the season for them – they are much larger than you see, rind is not bruised and sweet so sweet – the ones in the picture are cut down too early – they can be found in st. john also
it is not a damn shea nut who lied to u its a quenepa its a fruit you eat it. shea nut is a nut u fool
My husband works with someone from the Virgin Islands and they are called genips there. The wiki reference gave many different, local names for them, although you can see that many have a common root language-wise. I have really enjoyed your blog and all the comments from people telling you what they are and giving the names they are called by. What an education. I hope you managed to make use of all those tomatoes. My husband is going to bring a few home tonight, so I’ll know what they taste like by tomorrow. His coworker’s family still lives in the Virgin Islands and they sent him a box of genips that they harvested before an iminent hurricane harvested them. About 3 weeks ago, I got a wonderful avocado. The avocados that grow in sourthern Florida and apparently all over the Carribean are not the same as the Haas avocados that come from California. They are much larger thah the Haas and to me, probably because I grew up eating them, are much better. I have always heard that Haas-type avocados are better, buy I treasure the kind that grew in my yard when I was a kid. I never thought I’d be getting one mailed from the Virgin Islands. I live in Kansas now, so no backyard avocados. No backyard anything tropical, but we do have apples and a lot of other things that didn’t grow in southern Florida. One fruit that I’ve seen in both places is the red mulberry. Lots of people complain about the mess they make, but I think it’s well worth it to get the delicious fruit.
I have eaten it a Chenet in Trinidad and it is a bit like lychee but much nicer but here is the full gen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamoncillo
The Fruit Quenepa also called Ackee in the Caribbean, Been eating all my life, makes you look foward to summer.
The fruit’s name vaires by island. Some people call it Genip, others call it Skenip, and there’s a few of us that call it Kenip.
Hope this helps :)
the name of the tropical fruit is called QUENEPA
and usually grow during the summer
A Excellent blog post, I will save this in my StumbleUpon account. Have a good day.
those green covered fruits on the outside with an orange look in the inside are defienatly from the carribean they are called “quenepas” in Puerto Rico & “limonsillos” in the Dominican Republic
That green fruit is called limoncillo in the Dominican Republic, which is where I am from. I grew up eating these a lot! They are delicious, but only in its peak season; I forgot the range of months. Here’s a link to the Wiki for it if you want to be more technical with the fruit and plant itself ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melicoccus_bijugatus
FYI, the husked tomatoes are called gooseberries.
Those mystery fruits you bought are called Quenepas mostly in Puertorico its like a lime
I’m from the Caribbean and we call the green fruit with the pink inside . Depending on where you are, there called Genips or Ackee( in Jamaica they have another fruit called Ackee)
My Family is Trinidadian and we eat the fruit a lot. it is called Quenepa but we call in Chenet.
Kenepas! MMM! I haven’t had those since I was little. You found a great treat. :D My dad’s Puerto Rican and he used to bring those hope all the time.
Oh Boy….. Guinep cant tell when last I had one… Have the tree in my yard in Guyana.
The green one its a caribean fruit from Puerto Rico, the name is kenepa