A Tale of a Sapodilla, my Garden Fruits, and Granola

I bought my sapodilla tree at the rare fruit and nut show that we had in town years ago. I planted it in our extra lot and pretty much forgot about it. The leaves are very pretty and it was a slow growing tree, so I just let it go. I had noticed that it did blossom a few times but I never saw any fruit on the tree...until this year.

I was walking around our yard...we have two lots, and the back boundary is all natural, where I have banana trees, bird of paradise, elephant ears, sea grapes and many more plants.

...then I spotted it, I have fruit on my sopadilla tree!! I immediately picked one and brought it inside. Oh sure then I check to see when the fruit is ripe...

I found a lot of information on sapodilla...I guess it is not unusual for a young tree to take around 8 years before you see any fruit...so there you go...right on time! Here is a little bit of info from Nutrition and you website about the fruit :

Sapodilla or Sapota or chikoo, a delicious tropical fruit is rich in vitamins, minerals and health benefiting anti-oxidant tannins. The fruit is soft, composed of easily digestible pulp made up with simple sugars like fructose and sucrose that when eaten replenishes energy and revitalizes the body instantly.

Sapota is a tropical evergreen fruit bearing tree belongs to the family of sapotaceae of the genus: Manilkara. Scientific name: Manilkara zapota.

So I guess it's okay to pick it when I did...I just have to wait until it is ripe or soft before I eat it., kind of like an avocado. ..

This one was firm but when I scratched the skin it was white or cream color and not green, and it was okay to let it soften before I eat it.

So here it is after a few days on the counter to let it sweeten like it should before you cut into it's tender flesh and dig in.

It is described as brown sugar in flavor or caramel, and it was just that, they also said it had a pear-like texture which really worried me because I don't like pears or their texture, but I didn't see or taste any pear here. It was almost like dulce de leche, yum, more like caramel than brown sugar. Very good.

An up date on how far my pineapple has grown...

...and now for my mango tree... I have a big problem...squirrels! They are going after my mangoes!! I don't know how to stop them! If anyone has any ideas...I am all ears, please let me know...I need help!

One dropped on our pool screen.

This one was already picked by the squirrels and it is not big enough yet. I am going to see if it will ripen, but I was hoping for tree full of ripened mangoes this July when they should be ready.

They don't care how big or little, ripe or not...they dig right in...at least it looks like it did ripen a little...they better finish it. Nothing is worse than going to pick a mango right off the tree and turning it to find a bite out if it still hanging on the tree! darn squirrels!!!

Just noticed my bananas, kinda tiny too!


...and now for the granola...it is the 3rd Saturday of the month which means it's my turn to post on Our Krazy Kitchen so check out my post on...My grandmother's granola recipe.

Thanks for stopping by! Now hop on over for a Relax and Surf Sunday blog hop and enjoy!