Tangy, creamy, tart with a lingering sweetness. Aaah, passion fruit!
Like bright Easter eggs, passion fruit randomly decorate my yard.
There are two types of fruit, the purple and the yellow. People say purple is sweeter, but in a blind taste test I couldn't tell the difference. I just like the contrasting colors!
Craving a regular supply, a few years ago I started growing lilikoi. It's a vine, and I thought how great that would be to help me conceal some of my cinderblock decorating, add shade, and produce my favorite fruit.
However.
It's important to know something about lilikoi before you grow it–its big. The vines are huge and think nothing of swallowing whole trees.
I'm looking up from below one of my trees swallowed by lilikoi. Yikes!
So, if you grow lilikoi you better have a biiiiig fence, and watch out or they'll engulf your house. Periodic maintenance with a machete is highly recommended.
As if they weren't tasty enough and beautiful enough, right now they're covered with these:
lilikoi blossoms let it all hang out for pollinators.
Next blog I'll share the arduous process of getting the juice out of the fruit and making something with it.
What's YOUR favorite seasonal fruit?
Those look enticing. My favorite fruit is the nectarine. The colors. The juice. The texture. The taste. The smell. My mouth waters just thinking about it.
I love the flowers you enjoy before the fruit is ripe.
Yummy, yummy, yummy, I’ve got love in my tummy. It’s a feeling I can’t satisfy.
Janie
How well I know!
Aw, now I miss lilikoi. Mmmm
remember when I tried to mail you some and the Mail Police confiscated?
There are also the smaller, more orange colored ones. They seem to grow in different environments in our yard-fortunately-since they are pretty territorial! Add a little lilikoi juice to lemonade for an extra kick!
Are you talking about the longer, cylindrical kind? Haven’t seen those around here.
omg those pictures are like fruit porn! Yum! You still going to have some in say two weeks? I’ll swing by and trade ya maui onions for some. :0)
I didn’t even know yellow passion fruit exists; we only get the brownish-purple ones here. 🙂
You made me curious about lilikoi. Never heard of it. Is that its only name?
My favourite seasonal fruits are cherries and soon we’ll have raspberries. I’m quite fond of our apple trees as well, because they give us fruit that keeps for most of the winter.
There’s nothing like the taste of home-grown fruit, don’t you think? Well, except maybe home-brewed fruit liqueurs. And a few other things I can think of, but better not go there. 🙂