Memories of the farm

My uncle and aunt (mom's only sister) had a farm. And, as a child, I spent many, many vacations with them. They had three boys and one daughter, so their house was full and agitated. For me, it was fun all the time.

At the farm, which was huge, they had cattle, pigs, chickens, horses, goats, ducks - oh, well, all the animals that normally live in farms, right?

And they had fields of corn, sugar cane, mandioc, beans... I cannot list it all because I do not remember. They had orange, lime, tangerine, pineapple and lemon orchards. I am telling you, the place was HUGE! And wonderful.

For me, it was a dream place, where I could roam free and dream, and play to my heart's content.

But, what I want now is to show to you one type of fruit that is abundant in Brazil and that is also quite interesting. May be you have seen it before. If not, I think you would find it different.

Its name is Jaboticaba. It is a little black round fruit, extremelly sweet and tasty. I guess, here in the US, one would call it a berry.

And they grow on trees, not bushes. One can pick them up and eat them right there, from under the tree. Or climb the tree to pick the ones up high above. Or take them home and put them in the fridge for a few hours, which would make them even better!

The neat thing about them is that they grow on the trunk of the tree. Want to see what I am talking about?

How about that? Istn't that neat?

First, it blooms like this:

... right there in the trunk also. And, when a tree is in bloom, it smells great!

The darker the fruit, the riper it is. The riper, the sweeter.

Normally, they grow to the size of a fat blackberry (for a comparison purpose), but, sometimes, they can surprize you and oh, they get really fat.

But this is rare! Quite rare!!

One does not eat the skins. It tends to be a little sour. The inside of the fruit is white and it has a pit, covered with a white type pulp. One spits the pits too. No reason to eat that.

The next picture shows its usual size, as well as what it looks like, inside:

Note: Again, the pictures are not mine. They will be deleted in case anyone gets upset with me for borrowing them.

When it is time for this fruit/berry (?), one can find them at any market. They are sold by the litre, meaning the seller will have a one or two litres can which he will scoop the little balls and fill a bag with them, according to how many litres you want. And they are cheap. Yum!

They can be used for jelly also. The whole fruit is cooked with a little bit of sugar, then strained, and the end result is an amazing red/purplish colour jelly that tastes like heaven!

Now, here comes the funny part.

At the farm, we would gather at the veranda with many large bowls of Jaboticabas and have a party. The whole family, grown ups and children.

Plop one in the mouth, bust it with a "ploc" sound, squish the juice, swallow the goody, and spit the skin and pit in a bucket. And talk, and laugh, and play, and eat more, until it was all gone.

Then, usually I was the one chosen to take the skins and pits across the creek to the chickens. And I did. And I would run back to the veranda, to sit and wait with the others.

Because, after the chickens had their feast, it would not take very long for the show to begin. They would start walking funny and funnier. They got drunk!!

It did not harm them, just gave them a little good time. 

I guess it was the sugar content in those skins that had that effect.

It was funny to see them staggering around the yards, "happy as stink on poop". 

**

It is worth telling that it did NOT have the same effect on any of us, people.