Saturday, December 15, 2012

Lucuma

My last residence was in Alaska, hence I do not consider myself an expert on produce. Most of the fruit in AK almost always came off a barge, and never was too exotic, or too fresh for that matter. Therefore, this is one of the things I love about my site. It's generally has some sort of fruit in season, and since it's at only 7,200+ feet in elevation, I often have fruits that other volunteers near me don't (since some volunteers are well over 9,000 feet up). The fruit in season now is Lucuma. I don't know if that something we have at the Albertsons or Safeways back home, but right now here in Yuracoto, they're everywhere.

Lucuma isn't a very typical fruit. It's green on the outside, and has a orange-ish colored, dry, powdery meat. It isn't juicy, nor does it have citrus bite. Lucuma isn't very good by itself; however, if made into a juice with a little milk, or even into an ice cream lucuma, has a pretty delicious, sweet taste.

Since Dina and Roger have hearts of gold, but not much to give away, whenever I go somewhere  they always encourage me to pick some fruit as gifts for whomever. Here's Cate, Yeferson, and I picking some lucuma for Cate to take to Lima (Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the actual fruit, but google it. It's worth the click).