I first discovered these fruits: Arbetus Unedo (strawberry tree fruit) a few years ago, its not a wild edible fruit you would necessarily know about unless your are from the Mediterranean particularly coastal areas where its native too. (As well as ireland)
I think the first impression when I saw them was they are probably not edible, maybe just for the birds.
They are so red with these tiny gritty spikes on the exterior then bright yellow orange goo on the inside.
On closer inspection the interior looks more like jam, probably why many recipes using this fruit suggest preserving is the best thing to do with them, and particularly because they also don't last long when ripe.
These fruits take all year to ripen, its common to see flowers and berries at the same time, normally around Christmas but this year they've come early maybe due to the colder front coming earlier this year.
They seem to be much bigger juicier and sweeter than I've ever had them before, this is definately the best batch so far.
You can see how they range in size, but I've never seen one as big as this im guessing it must be all the extra rain we had recently.
Some get even darker red on the outside and juicer and sweeter.
The fruits can start to ferment on the tree and apparently bears can get drunk off the fermented fruits.
Like you see in the picture below from the crest of Madrid.
There aren't any bears hear but there are a few wild boars about, you can often see they have turned the soil all around the forest. I wonder if they eat the fruits?
In the close up you can see the little brown seeds inside the fruit,
I don't know how easily they germinate becauee there are many fruits and seeds but not so many trees around, often you can find a few scattered together but they all seem of similar age.
However I have seen them growing back to back covering a whole cliff, but I don't know if they had been propagated from a cutting deliberately by a man, of its was natural dispersion.
At least this fruit is wild and natural as they come and has not been messed about genetically keeping them healthy. They are not affected by pests or disease. And the fruits themselves are also extremely high in antioxidants and vitamin c to name a few.
The antioxidant compounds have many preventive effects in chronic health disorders, such as cancer and neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases.
I tried to look more into the history of this miracle fruit but there is very patchy information but it is an ancient fruit and was mentioned by a roman poet as a fruit that does not need cultivation.
This would have been incredibly important as a survival food.
I think the fruit is underrated because its over looked by many either they do not know about or may even look down on it as being food for the poor. Its not exactly the sweetest or pleasant thing to eat it must be timed exactly at the moment they are ripe or over ripe for the most tastiest experience... pick eat, hand to mouth lets go...
if you try to bring them home they will just get squashed! Trust me it happened. Fresh and wild is the best way.
As I walked home from the forest I noticed this sign along the beach with a crest of a tree with red fruits i have a suspicion its the strawberry fruit tree like the Madrid crest with bear.
So what do you think, have you tried this fruit, or would you like to try it?