Living in a village has several benefits. Especially less cost of living, fresh air, and of course vegetables and fruits just plucked from plants. Today's story is about jack, ripe jackfruit. Have you ever tasted it?
Our garden is full of valuable trees like mango, coconut, and jack. Old owners of the land have planted jack trees in the fence line and we are the ones who enjoy the fruits. Jack tree is called as "rice tree" in my country. Rice is our main meal and jack is a good alternative to rice.
Raw jack is prepared in different manners. Even we consider young jack fruit as a very nutritional food for mothers who feed newborn children. It's a very valuable tree in terms of food and as well as wood. Here we have to get permission from the government to cut a jack tree.
There are two types of Ripe Jack fruits. Bulbs of the first type is strong and solid. They are pleasant to eat for me. In the second type, the bulbs are too soft and a little pulpy. People feel uncomfortable when eating them. But there are many who likes the second type. To me, the first type is better.
Once the jack fruit is riped, it spreads the fragrance. That's where we get aware of the ripe jack fruit. Usually, the color of the skin of raw jack is light green but when it gets ripped, the color changes to slightly yellowish-green. But mostly we find it from the smell. The natural way is, the fruit falls down once it is ready. But before that birds and monkeys enjoy it. So we pluck it before it gets fully riped.
We have to care about the gum that flows from the skin. But it is harmless to the skin. We can simply remove the gum using coconut oil. Simply cut the fruit into two halves as shown in the photo. And again split into four. Now we can carefully separate bulbs by hand. We don't have to worry about seeds, just take with the seed.
You can wash the bulbs after separating.
Then spread some salt powder on it. I use only salt, some are using pepper too. It enhances the taste. When you eat be careful because the smell remains for a long. After eating usually I wash my hands well and even brush the teeth to get rid of the smell.
What about seeds? You can collect seeds separately. Then wash them well and let them dry. You can keep seeds for a long time. You can cook seeds as well. The taste is better when it boiled and also burned using direct fire. That's why we give a big value to jack fruit.
Imagine one jack fruit can fill the hunger of 10 people for a meal. And we live in a world where around 9 million people die per year due to hunger.
Benifits of Riped Jack
- Good for skin
- High vitamin A
- Good source of fiber
- Protect from common diseases like heart issues, diabetics, and eye problems
If you haven't enjoyed riped jackfruit yet, try it.
All photos are my own. The camera is Samsung Galaxy M21.