Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff Lauren Volga bomb Here a bread flavored fruit.
Speaker 1: If you're unfamiliar, it might sound far fetched, but in
Speaker 1: the world's tropical regions, this starchy crop is a staple
Speaker 1: bread fruit. Large prickly oval shaped fruit grown from Southeast
Speaker 1: Asia to Hawaii, where it's also known as Ulu does
Speaker 1: in fact taste like a mix between freshly baked bread, plantains,
Speaker 1: and potatoes, But bread fruits superpowers go well beyond flavor.
Speaker 1: This relative of the increasingly popular jackfruit is a promising
Speaker 1: solution to food in security, particularly in tropical places where
Speaker 1: bread fruit trees easily thrive. One bread fruit alone weighs
Speaker 1: around seven pounds or three kilos, sometimes up to twelve
Speaker 1: pounds or over five kilos, and contains enough carbohydrates for
Speaker 1: one meal for a family of five. The bread fruit
Speaker 1: is considered one of the highest yielding food plants on
Speaker 1: the planet. One can produce fifty to fifty fruits per
Speaker 1: year and sustain a family of four for decades. We
Speaker 1: spoke by email with Diane Ragoni, director of the Hawaii
Speaker 1: based National Tropical Botanic Gardens bread Fruit Institute. She explained
Speaker 1: that bread fruit is also a highly sustainable crop quote.
Speaker 1: It has long been an important subsistence crop for many
Speaker 1: tropical communities. Over the past decade, farmers and families have
Speaker 1: begun planting more bread fruit trees for local food and
Speaker 1: economic security. Another factor is the critical need to adopt
Speaker 1: and expand sustainable, regenerative agriculture cropping systems for the health
Speaker 1: and well being of people and the planet. Bread Fruit,
Speaker 1: which likely stemmed from its ancestor bread nut in New Guinea,
Speaker 1: has been a main crop among Pacific islanders for millennia.
Speaker 1: When early European explorers and colonizers saw bread fruit in
Speaker 1: the Cific Islands, they took it with them to Jamaica
Speaker 1: as a staple crop for the people that they had
Speaker 1: enslaved there, but the existing starch crop, plantains, remained more popular.
Speaker 1: It took about fifty years for bread fruit to make
Speaker 1: its way into Caribbean cuisine. Bread fruits roots in Hawaii
Speaker 1: go back even further. Ancient voyage in Polynesians brought the
Speaker 1: tree with them across hundreds or thousands of miles and
Speaker 1: canoes when they settled the islands. A Crops like this
Speaker 1: are sometimes called canoe crops. The fruit was integral to
Speaker 1: ancient Hawaiian culture and spiritual life for hundreds of years
Speaker 1: before the islands had any contact with the Europeans. Historic
Speaker 1: Hawaiian bread fruit groves may have been large enough to
Speaker 1: sustain seventy people. Some of Hawaii's present day trees are
Speaker 1: the offspring of groves planted centuries ago. Bread Fruit trees
Speaker 1: now grow across Earth's tropical belt, including in Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Ghana,
Speaker 1: and Myanmar. Rigoni says it's easily perishable, only good for
Speaker 1: a few is after harvest, which means it's tough to
Speaker 1: find outside the tropics, but online retailers like Miami Fruit
Speaker 1: do ship it across the mainland United States. Bread fruit
Speaker 1: is safe for eating and cooking across all development stages.
Speaker 1: Most people use it when it's mature but still firm,
Speaker 1: and either boil steam or bake it. As a starchy crop,
Speaker 1: bread fruit can replace potatoes or pasta, and it's a
Speaker 1: great alternative for potato chips or French fries. But when
Speaker 1: it's green and hard, it tastes similar to artichoke, But
Speaker 1: after it's ripe, it's also tasty when simply eaten raw.
Speaker 1: When very ripe bread fruit has a creamy, sweet flavor
Speaker 1: perfect for desserts or pure aid for baby food. According
Speaker 1: to Ragoni, these serving methods hardly scratch the surface of
Speaker 1: bread fruit's potential. She said. Entrepreneurs are processing fresh fruit,
Speaker 1: such as steaming and freezing wedges or drying and grinding
Speaker 1: it into flour and making value added products like fries,
Speaker 1: to Stana's liquors and more to supply local and export markets.
Speaker 1: If you don't live in a bread fruit growing area,
Speaker 1: can you readily order bread fruit on a restaurant menu?
Speaker 1: Not yet, but if you have the good fortune to
Speaker 1: do so, then do so. It will support bread fruit
Speaker 1: farmers and entrepreneurs. Health benefits abound with bread fruit. It's
Speaker 1: an energy rich food brimming with complex carbohydrates, fiber, and
Speaker 1: minerals like potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and sink. It's
Speaker 1: also gluten free and can be dried or ground into
Speaker 1: gluten free flour. Bread Fruit boasts some other important advantages.
Speaker 1: It's a natural insect repellent. The male bread fruit flour
Speaker 1: is known to repel mosquitoes. The sap from bread fruit
Speaker 1: can be used to cold water crafts and homes, while
Speaker 1: fibers from the trees bark are used to create mosquito nets, clothing,
Speaker 1: and artwork. The leaves and fallen fruit make nutritious feed
Speaker 1: for animals. The trees bear fifty to a d and
Speaker 1: fifty fruits annually, but they're more than a means to
Speaker 1: an end. They grow to eighty five feet that's tw
Speaker 1: six ms tall and produce wood sturdy enough for canoe
Speaker 1: outriggers and even houses, and they help anchor soil, improving
Speaker 1: the watershed management in areas where they're planted. They also
Speaker 1: provide much needed shelter to plant pollinators and seed dispersers
Speaker 1: like birds, bees, and fats. Today's episode was written by
Speaker 1: Stephanie Vermilion and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on
Speaker 1: this and lots of other topics that aren't just loafing
Speaker 1: around because breadfruit of visit house stuff works dot com.
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