Jackfruit in Panama

When tourists visit New Leaf Fruit Farm, we get a lot of questions about this spiky, bowling ball-like enormous fruit. I decided to make a YouTube video to tech you all about how to harvest/cut this large fruit without getting too messy!

You can check out the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO_j-3xzbeU

Interesting facts about Jackfruit:

• Jackfruit trees have a lifespan of 60 to 70 years.
• A mature jackfruit tree can produce 100 to 200 fruits in a year.
• Jackfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, reaching 80 pounds in weight. The interior consists of large edible bulbs of yellow, banana-flavored flesh.
• There may be 100 or up to 500 seeds in a single fruit.
• The seeds from ripe fruits are edible, and have a milky, sweet taste often compared to Brazil nuts.

Origins of Jackfruit

• This fruit is native to the rain forests of the Western Ghats of India.
• Archaeological findings in India have revealed that jackfruit was cultivated in India 3000 to 6000 years ago.
• The jackfruit spread early on to other parts of India, southeast Asia, the East Indies and ultimately the Philippines.

Jackfruit Around the World

• Jackfruit industries are established in Sri Lanka and Vietnam, where the fruit is processed into products such as flour, noodles, and ice cream.
• In Vietnam, jackfruit wood is prized for the making of Buddhist statues in temples and fish sauce barrels.
• The jackfruit heartwood is used by Buddhist monasteries in Southeast Asia as a dye, giving the robes of the monks their distinctive light-brown color.
• In Indonesia, the hardwood from the trunk of a jackfruit tree is carved out to form the barrels of drums used in the gamelan, and in the Philippines, its soft wood is made into the body of the kutijapi, a type of boat lute.

Jackfruit
Artocarpus heterophyllus