mamey sapote

Dearest reader-

You may be thinking to yourself-

What the hell is that?

It is not the inner workings of a songbird or cotton rat.

It is not evidence of life beyond our blue planet.

It is a fruit – the mamey sapote.

Or, as Jamie dubbed it, “fetus fruit.”

They typically come into season sometime in March in Southern Florida, and are very valuable, in large part because of the time commitment for each crop. From flower to fruit, a mamey sapote requires between 13 and 24 months. For every two harvests a starfruit grower gathers, the sapote farmer may get only one.

The skin of the fruit is positively homely, a rough sandpaper brown. The flesh, on the other hand, is a revelation – creamy and sweet, with a texture something like an avocado, with the most incredible gradations of orange, red, and salmon pink.

The slices reminded me of raw tuna sashimi.

We processed a whole box on Saturday for dehydrating. Margie’s friend Sal brought them over. They, too, were a casualty of the frost, dropped from the trees before fully mature.

“Don’t sell these fresh,” he warned. “They’re not right.”

He had a point – they weren’t perfect. But they were still incredibly delicious.