Food

A BEAUTIFUL DIVERSE PALETTE FOR YOUR PALATE NOW

Fruits et légumes - Ile de la Réunion. Mascarene Archipelago, Reunion Island.

With 80% of the world’s food coming from just a relatively few types of plants, with a predominance of rice and wheat, food sources are vulnerable to bad weather, disease, insect destruction, and natural disasters.

Diverse Fruits

Returning to a more diverse range of fruits, vegetables, and grains is critically important. As a bonus, they make for more beautiful eating. Check out the fascinating and delicious varieties we curated for you below.

REUNION ISLAND

ILE DE LA RÉUNION -- REUNION ISLAND

Ile de la Réunion, in the Mascarene Archipelago, in the South Pacific, is one place that offers an exceptionally diverse range of tropical fruits and "lontan" (rare) vegetables, including more than 50 varieties of mango and the prized perfumed Victoria pineapple.

Les Litchies

Here, you’ll also find exotics, like longani, which resembles the lychee, ti'jaques, the French term jacquier, for jackfruit, goyavier [strawberry guava], and Coeur-de-Boeuf anone [ox heart soursop], to name a few.

A Blue Bean

1. BLUE BEAN (DEAD MAN’S FINGER)

Although the common name, “Dead Man’s Finger” isn’t particularly appetizing, and it looks and smells rather peculiar, the Blue Bean fruit may soon be a regular ingredient in British kitchens, thanks to the biodiversity initiatives of the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens.

Kew have more than 50 projects focused on biodiversity currently underway, many of which are aimed at promoting and sustaining a vast range of edible plant varieties.

Durian

2. DURIAN

There are 30 known varieties of durian, grown in southeast Asia. It’s a hefty fruit, about 12” long and 6” in diameter, weighing almost 3 lbs. With its gorgeous spiked husk, it is regarded as the "king of fruits." It has a particularly strong odor. Its flavor is an odd combo of cheesy-butterscotchy-chivey, if you can imagine!

Rose Apple

3. ROSE APPLE

The rose apple grows on an evergreen tree. Creamy white or greenish-white flowers yield pink pear-shaped, rose-scented, rose-flavored fruits.

Chinese Strawberry

4. YANGMEI

Yangmei (aka red bayberry or yamamomo) is a sweet fruit native to Asia. It tastes like a strawberry and is very high in vitamin C.

Chinese Strawberries

Cultivated in China for thousands of years, the yangmei tree is evergreen and can thrive in poor soils which it helps to replenish by restoring their nitrogen content.

Sugar Apple

5. SUGAR APPLE

The sugar apple (Annona), comes in many varieties, and is grown in tropical climates in South America. Australia, and South Asia.

Sugar apple trees tout fragrant fleshy blossoms, before yielding alligator-skinned sweet-fleshed fruits.

Pineberry

6. PINEBERRY

The pineberry is the pastel pink relative of a strawberry. In fact, they are the oldest strawberry variety, originating in South America. Pineberries were saved from extinction by breeders when the original source material was discovered in Southern Europe. The taste and smell like pineapples.

Hala Fruit

7. PANDANUS TECTORIUS - HALA FRUITS

Hala fruits (Pandanus tectorius) grow in the tropical islands of the Pacific, among others. The fruits taste kind of like funky pumpkins.

Pandanus tectorius fruit

The leaves are also eaten and sometime used for medicinal purposes. They are also fashioned into baskets and sandals.

Akebi

8. AKEBI (AKA AKEBIA)

Akebia quinata, also known as the chocolate vine, is native to Japan, China and Korea, and is naturalized in the eastern United States from Georgia to Michigan to Massachusetts.

It’s flowers are chocolate-scented with 3 or 4 sepals. The fruits are sausage-shaped pods which contain edible gelatinous sweet pulp and seeds. The rind has a slightly bitter taste and is often stuffed, as a vegetable, and deep-fried. The vines are traditionally used for basket weaving.

Salak Salacca zalacca

9. SALAK: SNAKE FRUIT

Salak (Salacca zalacca) is a species of palm tree native to Java and Sumatra, now naturalized in Bali, Lombok, Timor, Malaysia, Maluku & Sulawesi. It bears fig-like “snake fruits,” with reddish-brown scaly skin and crunchy sweet-sour flesh. There are at least 30 known cultivars.

Turkish orange eggplants

10. TURKISH ORANGE EGGPLANTS

The Turkish eggplant (aka Scarlet or Ethiopian eggplant) is a beautiful vibrant persimmonesque orange. It tastes like our more familiar purple variety eggplant, but with many more seeds. While the purple eggplant (Solanum melongena) originated in Asia, Turkish eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum) comes from Africa.

Purple beans

Read more about Beautiful Diversity, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including 10 Beautiful New Books Celebrating the Beauty of Diversity Now and Diversity Makes the World More Beautiful Now.

Sugar Apple

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Pole beans

IMAGE CREDITS:

Image: Courtesy of Reunion Island. Fruits et légumes - Ile de la Réunion. Mascarene Archipelago, Reunion Island.
Image: Courtesy of Reunion Island.
Image: by Miwok.
Image: by Dream 30. Courtesy of Reunion Island. Les Litchies.
Image: by Wolfgang Stuppy/RBG Kew. A Blue Bean.
Image: by Angelo Juan Ramos. Tropical bounty. Penang, Malaysia.
Image: Courtesy of Seedville. Rose Apple.
Image: Courtesy of Vereck. Yangmei - Chinese strawberries. China.
Image: Courtesy of Vereck. Yangmei - Chinese strawberries. China.
Image: Courtesy of Kath’s Edible Fruits. Sugar Apple.
Image: by Emmbean. Pineberries.
Image: by Aziz Almalki. Explosive Material. Hala Fruit.
Image: by AntanO. Pandanus tectorius fruit.
Image: by Daniel Mosquin, of University of British Columbia Botanical Garden. Akebia quinata fruit.
Image: Courtesy of Morsels and Musings. Salak (Salacca zalacca). Bali, Indonesia.
Image: Courtesy of Loghouse Plants. Turkish Orange Eggplants.
Image: Courtesy of Feral Kitchen. Purple beans.
Image: by Liu Tao. Sweetsop fruit (aka Sugar Apple).
Image: by BN App - Download now!
Image: Courtesy of E and Me Seeds. Trionfo Violetto Pole Beans.