Our Japanese Raisin Tree fruited!

Our Japanese Raisin Tree has "fruited" for the first time, and man those "raisins" are tasty! I found them lying on the ground beneath the tree and wondered what the heck they were, then tentatively took a bite. Yum! They taste just like raisins, even raisins soaked in rum, with a taste of nashi pear to it too. A good crop is still sitting way up there in the tree, so I'm hoping a windy day will send them to the ground. They are too high to reach by a ladder.

The raisins are not a fruit at all but rather a swollen flower stalk. I thought it would be a cool addition to our subtropical orchard, but wasn't prepared for just how yummy they tasted. I reckon they would taste great on a cracker with cheese, and apparently they can be chopped and added to a fruit cake, probably muffins as well. Everyone in our household loves them, so the crop will be well used.

As well as Raisins, we have Casimiroa fruit rotting on the ground ( heavy cropper) and the Inga bean tree is laden with beans which are almost ready to eat. The kids love to climb the tree and pick the beans, and then sit up in the treehouse and split open the beans to get to the juicy flesh inside. Lucky kids, eh?