Custard Apples

[sun burn]

Ok tropical guys, which is the best eating custard apple. Helga sold me rollinia telling me it was the best. Other people refuted this idea. Talking to Farmer Joe today who used to the president of the tropical fruit society here, he talked about a number of different varieties and i can't quite remember which one he said he liked hte best. He confused me a bit more actually. He also gave me one called cassowary. Oh yes he liked one he called star apple i think (i have had enough of fruit called apple or star which are neither).

I just want a simple old fashioned custard apple. They were good as far as I am concerned.

Also he told me today that jakfruit don't grow true to type from seed. Can anyone confirm or refute this?

[sun burn]

Sugar apple is what Joe called it.

[Fernando Pessoa]

I like Biriba,small variety of fruit ,custard apples are all pretty good.

[aroideana]

Lots of fruits called custard apple , many could be different species , some are better suited to sub-tropics and a few even do best in temperate climate . Personally I like Rollinia , it has been put back in Annona family now after a brief time with its own family . Disregard common names aND LEARN CORRECT NAMES , or native names so instead of Star Apple , Caimito as it is Chrysophyllum cainito .

Yes jakfruits do not grow true from seed , but can be close and are so fast its worth planting lots and cull out the carp .
Or fork out for grafted .. I have a great small soft flesh one ripe now can share the seed for postage .

[sun burn]

I can't plant a lot of jakfruits. I simply do not have that much space available at this point. But i will keep going iwth the seed.

I thought cherimoya was a proper name for custard apple.

I now know the one i was aftres. Its called African Pride. Joe said it was not much good but i've always liked it and we had one at Daintree that was yummy. I' don't believe they should be picked early though and so those in the supermarkets are rubbish.

I didn't like the look of the bulllocks heart that Joe had. He liked it though.

I am glad to hear you like hte Rollinia. Certainly is a beautiful looking fruit.

[Grasshopper]

I love Rollinia sadly have no more room on my block but will definitely plant one in the community garden.I have a soursop which is great eating and custard appleish
If you can catch the article on custard apples on SBS food lovers guide
the guy went through a run down and said which was good for cooking and which was better fresh,it was on TV yesterday but if you look at the SBS site and search custard apple it will probably come up

there you go saved you the google

http://www.sbs.com.au/food/glossary/1311/Custard_Apple

[sun burn]

Thanks grass hopper. I don't think i want any to cook just for fruit eating. The less cooking i have to do the better. I think african pride is the usual one to eat. But i will have a look at that when i get a chance.

later.... Thanks for posting the link, it makes it so much easier. So I looked at it. Ok that tells me i need to get the pinks mammoth one for eating and that african pride is for cooking.

I doubt that i would be impressed with a fruit shake that included the blended seeds and i don't think i would bother making custard apple cheesecake. I can't imagine that the taste would be there as they really are quite a delicate flavoured fruit. But i guess if you are growing hundreds you'd be into trying anything.

I wonder if its their horrible hard never ripening fruits that i have seen and bought on occasion from the supermarket. In india i saw custard apples they were also hard but the locals were picking them. Perhaps they were going to cook it.

I was thinking today that i could just about be a fruiterian. I love fruit so much i think i could almost live on it and nothing else.

[Curramore1]

My Pink's Mammoth is flowering at the moment, just after it has dropped most of it's leaves now becoming under tree mulch. If you want a good crop here the best thing is to hand pollinate. Fruit splitting with Autumn rain is my biggest hassle, but we have 1500 mm of rain a year here, mostly Nov to May. Winds knock them around a bit and also a type of wooly white scale insect appears on them but does no serious damage. They soften after three or four days after picking and we eat them here from May to August, but I am at 450+ metres above sea level on acid red volcanics 70 km or so North of Bris. in a sort of elevated frost free on the ridges, cold as hell on the creek bottoms, sub tropical/ temperate anachronism. They are so sweet the sugar seems to crystallise in them, so I just have to eat them with fresh homemade cream to even it out a bit. The African Prides here alternate crop with a few monster fruit one year and all bush, no fruit the next. Temps today are min 19, max 26. Rain 10mm. Hum 100%. The King parrots here tell you when they are ready to pick, so they get most, we get enough. Have tried soursop, atemoya, Jakfruit, but too windy, cool and wet here methinks.