I got something interesting at our farmer’s market this week so I thought I’d go back to my “foods of Brazil” for this post. This week, many of the booths had bags toppling over, full of these little red fruits – acerola.
I’ve had acerola before in the juice form at the hotel breakfast here in town. Did I mention we lived in a hotel of a few months before getting into our apartment? Man, that breakfast got old!
Anyway, I had never ventured to try the actual fruit. I’ve only seen it at the market a few times and considering how fast they are going in my fridge right now, they aren’t the most stable of fruits.
Acerola appears to be pretty popular in the supplement world and is often sold in a powdered form. Its popularity comes from its utterly amazing amount of vitamin C content.
In a cup of the fruit there is 1644 mg of vitamin C! Compare that to 63 mg in an average-sized Florida orange. Wow!
How lucky am I to get to eat the actual fruit and drink the juice instead of sucking down a supplement!
Acerola is in the cherry family, but different than many fresh cherries I’ve had before. It is available in many other places in addition to Brazil. I saw some info that it is grown in California.
The texture to me was like a cross between a cherry and a peach. The flavor isn’t very distinctive. It isn’t overly sour or sweet, kind of bland. Each of the cherries has 3 seeds in it which makes it difficult to get to any of the flesh. I solved that problem by throwing it in the juicer.
It made a thick pulp to which I added water. It needed just a tiny bit of sugar to enhance the flavor and ended up being a great snack. I’ve still got a couple more cups in the fridge to finish. I’m stocked with vitamin C and ready to fight any infection that may arise!
Interesting. I’ve never even heard of them.
I love going to the Farmer’s Market — you never know what you’re going to find!
Ooooh, what a lovely fruit variety!!
I have always seen acerola in my supplements, but never thought about the real fruit! Thanks for teaching me something new!
I am SO jealous that you get to try all of these wonderful new foods! How exciting! Thanks so much for sharing your adventures.
They’re pretty. I’ve never seen them before. What an amazing adventure you’re having!
That seems like a perfect use for a juicer. I have wished for one off and on for a couple years.
Lori,
When we lived in Brazil in the 90’s Acerola was a new thing, few people knew anything about it and we could only buy frozen pulp at the grocery store which we would blend with water and sugar to make juice.
We were told one could only find this fruit in the north of Brazil, apparently, they either found a way to produce it in the south or they are transporting by plane because as you well pointed out, it is a really delicate fruit and it goes bad really fast.
Ray
something I’ve never seen before, its certainly pretty
Thanks so much for the comments.
cathy – We are even because I’m jealous of your snow and cooler temps. Ha, ha!
laura – I’d definitely take the plunge and get one. I love having one. They can be a pain to clean up, but such a great alternative to whole fruit from time to time.
ray – Check out this pub from the California Rare Fruit Growers, Inc. http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/acerola.html
Brazil was only mentioned in the origin as a place it has been introduced to which now holds some of its largest plantings.
How interesting, thanks for sharing. You put the entire thing in the juicer, pit and all? Did you need to strain it before drinking?
wow – I have never heard of this! the juice looks great. And thanks for coming by my blog so it led me to yours! 🙂
striving green – Yeah, at first I started to take all the pits out and then I realized there 3 in each cherry! So I just decided to throw it all in and it turned out great. It was a really thick pulp that needed to be thinned with water. No straining needed.
lauren – Hi! Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your comment. I love the name of your blog, by the way.
Wow, those look great! Sounds like a great fruit to be eatingin the winter time with all that Vitamin C
Lori,
Thanks for the link, it was really informative.
Ray
Such a cool post. I love reading about the different/interesting foods you get to try- I am way jealous :)! What are you and Franks girlfriend up to this weekend?
graduatemeghann – Yeah, I’ll definitely have a line of defenses when I head back home for Christmas.
ray – No problem. I thought so too.
erica – Ha, ha! Well Macy is with my in-laws right now. She stays in the States while we are away. I know, it is awful. I miss her like crazy, but it was much safer for her to stay there. Long story. Anyway, I’m sure there is some napping going on. I hope Frank got to sleep in some. 🙂