WEBVTT - How Does Breadfruit Work? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:11.240 Hey brain Stuff Lauren Volga bomb Here a bread flavored fruit. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:15.360 If you're unfamiliar, it might sound far fetched, but in 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:19.120 the world's tropical regions, this starchy crop is a staple 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.120 bread fruit. Large prickly oval shaped fruit grown from Southeast 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:27.840 Asia to Hawaii, where it's also known as Ulu does 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.920 in fact taste like a mix between freshly baked bread, plantains, 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:37.159 and potatoes, But bread fruits superpowers go well beyond flavor. 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:41.680 This relative of the increasingly popular jackfruit is a promising 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:45.440 solution to food in security, particularly in tropical places where 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:49.440 bread fruit trees easily thrive. One bread fruit alone weighs 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.640 around seven pounds or three kilos, sometimes up to twelve 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:56.120 pounds or over five kilos, and contains enough carbohydrates for 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.800 one meal for a family of five. The bread fruit 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:03.080 is considered one of the highest yielding food plants on 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:07.479 the planet. One can produce fifty to fifty fruits per 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:12.240 year and sustain a family of four for decades. We 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.680 spoke by email with Diane Ragoni, director of the Hawaii 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:20.440 based National Tropical Botanic Gardens bread Fruit Institute. She explained 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:24.120 that bread fruit is also a highly sustainable crop quote. 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:27.240 It has long been an important subsistence crop for many 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:31.080 tropical communities. Over the past decade, farmers and families have 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.080 begun planting more bread fruit trees for local food and 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:38.240 economic security. Another factor is the critical need to adopt 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:42.920 and expand sustainable, regenerative agriculture cropping systems for the health 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:47.520 and well being of people and the planet. Bread Fruit, 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:51.200 which likely stemmed from its ancestor bread nut in New Guinea, 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:55.240 has been a main crop among Pacific islanders for millennia. 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.800 When early European explorers and colonizers saw bread fruit in 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:02.560 the Cific Islands, they took it with them to Jamaica 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:04.560 as a staple crop for the people that they had 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:09.680 enslaved there, but the existing starch crop, plantains, remained more popular. 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:12.240 It took about fifty years for bread fruit to make 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:16.600 its way into Caribbean cuisine. Bread fruits roots in Hawaii 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.560 go back even further. Ancient voyage in Polynesians brought the 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.520 tree with them across hundreds or thousands of miles and 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.800 canoes when they settled the islands. A Crops like this 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:30.800 are sometimes called canoe crops. The fruit was integral to 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.280 ancient Hawaiian culture and spiritual life for hundreds of years 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:38.040 before the islands had any contact with the Europeans. Historic 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:40.560 Hawaiian bread fruit groves may have been large enough to 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:45.440 sustain seventy people. Some of Hawaii's present day trees are 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:50.320 the offspring of groves planted centuries ago. Bread Fruit trees 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:55.320 now grow across Earth's tropical belt, including in Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Ghana, 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:59.600 and Myanmar. Rigoni says it's easily perishable, only good for 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.520 a few is after harvest, which means it's tough to 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:06.680 find outside the tropics, but online retailers like Miami Fruit 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.920 do ship it across the mainland United States. Bread fruit 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:14.160 is safe for eating and cooking across all development stages. 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.320 Most people use it when it's mature but still firm, 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.280 and either boil steam or bake it. As a starchy crop, 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.320 bread fruit can replace potatoes or pasta, and it's a 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.600 great alternative for potato chips or French fries. But when 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.000 it's green and hard, it tastes similar to artichoke, But 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.440 after it's ripe, it's also tasty when simply eaten raw. 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.440 When very ripe bread fruit has a creamy, sweet flavor 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.400 perfect for desserts or pure aid for baby food. According 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.800 to Ragoni, these serving methods hardly scratch the surface of 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:50.360 bread fruit's potential. She said. Entrepreneurs are processing fresh fruit, 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.920 such as steaming and freezing wedges or drying and grinding 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.320 it into flour and making value added products like fries, 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:01.920 to Stana's liquors and more to supply local and export markets. 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:04.240 If you don't live in a bread fruit growing area, 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.040 can you readily order bread fruit on a restaurant menu? 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.160 Not yet, but if you have the good fortune to 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.000 do so, then do so. It will support bread fruit 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:18.320 farmers and entrepreneurs. Health benefits abound with bread fruit. It's 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.880 an energy rich food brimming with complex carbohydrates, fiber, and 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:27.120 minerals like potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and sink. It's 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.640 also gluten free and can be dried or ground into 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:34.520 gluten free flour. Bread Fruit boasts some other important advantages. 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.880 It's a natural insect repellent. The male bread fruit flour 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.720 is known to repel mosquitoes. The sap from bread fruit 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.920 can be used to cold water crafts and homes, while 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:47.440 fibers from the trees bark are used to create mosquito nets, clothing, 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.040 and artwork. The leaves and fallen fruit make nutritious feed 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:54.640 for animals. The trees bear fifty to a d and 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.440 fifty fruits annually, but they're more than a means to 0:04:57.480 --> 0:04:59.839 an end. They grow to eighty five feet that's tw 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.240 six ms tall and produce wood sturdy enough for canoe 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:07.920 outriggers and even houses, and they help anchor soil, improving 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.200 the watershed management in areas where they're planted. They also 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:15.440 provide much needed shelter to plant pollinators and seed dispersers 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:23.880 like birds, bees, and fats. Today's episode was written by 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:27.039 Stephanie Vermilion and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:29.320 this and lots of other topics that aren't just loafing 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:33.440 around because breadfruit of visit house stuff works dot com. 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.280 Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.160 my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:40.960 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.