Feijoa

The final fruit that I will be talking about in my series of blogs is the Feijoa. This is a small green fruit in a very similar shape to that of a lime. This fruit has many different names such as the Acca Sellowiana, the pineapple guava and the Gauvasteen. The Feijoa plant is one of the most edible plants in the world. The fruit it produces is edible and the leaves that grow on the Feijoa plant are edible. This is quite rare for a fruit and is one of a select few with this trait. There are more than 23 varieties of this fruit and all of them are different. These small fruits are native and very common in most hot dessert climates. The most famous place for these fruits is Brazil but they are also widely grown in Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia (USA) and New Zealand. The trees that these fruits grow on can grow to be an amazing 7+ meters tall. The Feijoa has an oval shape and is described as tasting like a combination of strawberry, pineapple and guava.

https://www.melissas.com/Feijoas-p/24.htm

Dragon Fruit

The penultimate blog I will be posting is about the dragon fruit. This pink, green and white fruit is extremely exotic looking but is actually very common worldwide. This south East Asian fruit is grown on a small bush and each fruit is grown with small spikey looking leaves on them. This makes a lot of people and animals think that these fruits are inedible straight from the bush but this is not true. When this fruit is cut in half, a strange white and black speckled inside is shown. This is the edible part of the fruit and is described as a very sweet kiwi with a watermelon texture. I personally think that this looks very appealing and sounds delicious. The majority of recipes surrounding and using dragon fruit are for drinks or savoury desserts. An example is pink dragon fruit soda or dragon fruit smoothie. These fruits originally came from Mexico but because of trade routes these fruits now grow in many hot tropical countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya

Kiwano

The third fruit that I will be talking about in my blog is the kiwano. This is a potato sized fruit. This fruit has many other names in many other languages but it is best known in English as the horned melon. The texture of this fruit is described as a cucumber-jelly-melon. The main reason that this fruit is held in so high regard in Africa is because during their very dry months these fruits are the main source of water. Surprisingly (to me anyway) these fruit actually grow in the ground. I find this surprising because I only recently found out that pineapples grow out of the ground also. One of the most popular and most used recipes using kiwano is a banana, pineapple and kiwano sorbet. The climate that these fruits need to grow is a very dry desert one. These fruits are usually picked in large numbers and take are usually ripe within 4 months.

                            https://www.specialfruit.com/en/products/detail/kiwano/Rfffz

Cherimoya

The next exotic fruit that I will be talking about on this blog is the Cherimoya. This is a medium sized green fruit very similar in size and shape to that of an apple. This fruit is also known as the sugar apple and the pawpaw fruit. These green fruits are native to Ecuador, Columbia, Peru and Bolivia. This fruit is very popular in these countries but there is something quite unexpected about them. The seeds within the Cherimoya are poisonous when they are crushed open. If eaten these seeds are known to be connected to Parkinson's disease and other severe illnesses. Even though this fruits seeds are very poisonous, many people in South America use this fruit in very diverse and adventurous ways. Two examples of this would be Cherimoya salsa and Cherimoya based food platters. This fruit is described by many as a delicious combination of banana, mango, pineapple and strawberries. This fruit sounds absolutely delicious but the toxicity of the seed worries me.

http://www.finecooking.com/ingredient/cherimoyas