Peach palm fruit

What it is

The thin-skinned fruit is about 2.5–5 cm (1–2 in) long, yellow, orange or scarlet, and normally holds one hard-shelled seed. Shapes range from oval to cone-like, and the flesh is dry and mealy rather than juicy.

The same plant also supplies heart of palm. That soft, delicate-tasting food comes from the growing top of the trunk and its young leaves; it is a different part of the plant.

Where it comes from

Indigenous peoples cultivated peach palm long before Europeans arrived in the Americas. It was an important food across lower Central America and the tropical river basins of South America, including the Amazon and Orinoco. Its names change with the country: pejibaye in Costa Rica, pijuayo in Peru and pupunha in Brazil.

How it's eaten where it grows

In Costa Rica, boiled pejibaye is eaten with mayonnaise. Its substantial pulp also goes into sweets. Delicia de pejibaye, a baked dessert from a cook in San José de la Montaña, Heredia, combines cooked fruit with eggs, evaporated milk, sugar, spices and raisins.

In Colombia, chontaduro is a street snack in Cali, eaten with salt, honey and lemon. Dried fruit can also be ground into flour.

How it's grown

Peach palm often grows as a clump of stems ringed with stiff black spines. It needs a tropical climate and grows best on fertile, well-drained ground. Farmers raise it from seeds or from shoots growing beside the main stem.

The spines make harvesting awkward. Pickers knock the fruit down or cut it with long poles fitted with cutters; with a ladder, a whole bunch can be cut and lowered by rope.

When and where you'll find it

In Costa Rica, the fruit usually matures from September through April. In Archidona, Ecuador, April brings the Festival de la Chonta.

Fresh fruit is very perishable, so it travels best preserved. Peeled, seeded halves canned in brine have been exported to the United States, and La Fe sells ready-to-eat chontaduro in glass jars. On the label, chontaduro means the fruit, not heart of palm.