Transcription
This episode is sponsored by Brightland. Greetings, everybody! For nearly 10 years, I have been traveling around the world to document rare and interesting fruit. This is something that has taken me to Africa, to Asia, to South America. I've traveled a lot for this channel, but I don't always need to. A lot of the strangest fruit that I have found over the years have been fruit that grows right here in my own country, the USA. And today, I'm going to focus on 10 of the weirdest fruits that I've come across in my own country.
Although these fruits are native here, that does not mean that they are easy to find. Ironically, some of the most difficult fruit that I've found in all these years have been fruit that grows in my own backyard. Although traditionally these have been used by Native Americans, uh, today they are mostly forgotten. I do want to point out that the word "weird" that I use is used lovingly. Okay, this is not a criticism towards the fruit or people who eat the fruit. In fact, I think that people should be eating the fruit that I cover in this video, and I hope that by the end of this video you'll think so too. [Music] The big thing with these is that most Americans don't even know what this is. Let's get started with a big one—literally a big one.
The pawpaw is the largest tree fruit that is native to North America. It grows wild across many of the eastern United States. It is also in the Annonaceae family, so it's related to the cherimoya, soursop, sugar apple, custard apple, etc. Although it's in the same family as these fruits, it's in a different genus, and that might be why it looks very different. Instead of looking like a sugar apple, it looks more like a potato. When you cut it open, though, it is full of a delicious pudding-like pulp. There are a ton of different varieties of pawpaw, and they all tend to have like a tropical sort of flavor. Some of them taste like mango, some taste like banana, some taste like papaya, but in all cases they are delicious. Pawpaws are one of my favorite fruits, but sadly they are very difficult to find. Even though the native range for the pawpaw is pretty big, a lot of their wild habitat has unfortunately been destroyed, so it's not an easy one to forage. It is possible to cultivate this fruit; you can grow it, but it's kind of tricky. It's got a lot of issues with it, and also the fruit is very perishable, so it's one that you're not likely going to find at a supermarket anytime soon. You may, however, find it at a farmers market in areas that it grows, or if you are able to make it out to a pawpaw festival. There are a few of them that happen each year in some of the US states. It's not an easy one to get your hands on, but if you can, it is well worth the trouble. So it's like if you took a soursop, a mango, a pineapple, a banana, and some vanilla and you mix it all together. It's just like a really nice flavor. [Music]
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Now, this is one I didn't even know about, um, but I guess like if you live in Texas, you've probably seen this before. These are Texas persimmons. If you come across a persimmon at the supermarket, it will most likely be either a Hachiya persimmon or a Fuyu persimmon. These are both different varieties of the same Asian species of persimmon. However, persimmons do grow in the U.S. as well, the most common of which is the American persimmon, a small, astringent species that needs to be very, very mushy in order to eat it. Those are kind of weird, but not nearly as weird as the Texas persimmon. The Texas persimmon is native to Texas, although it does also grow in Oklahoma and in Mexico. These are small, black, and full of a sticky pulp that tastes like a super sweet persimmon but with a little hint of molasses in it. These are really delicious, but there is a catch: these fruits have rather large seeds in them, and when you consider how small the fruit is, that's kind of a problem. However, they do have some popularity with foragers, and how they get around the seed issue is that they use these to make jam. I've never heard of these before, and I'm kind of surprised because that's really nice. [Music]
Something that I've been wanting to try for a very long time: maypops. Speaking of North American species of fruit that are related to a more popular variety of fruit that is from another country, there is also a North American passion fruit species. The maypop is most commonly found in the eastern United States, and its name is kind of interesting. It's either from the fact that these ripen in May, so they pop out of the ground in May, or that they may pop when you step on them—what a mystery! Like other passion fruit species, the maypop is mostly hollow on the inside except for a slimy pulp. The texture of that pulp is not everybody's cup of tea, but the flavor is really, really good. They can vary a lot, but the ones that I tried tasted almost exactly like strawberry candy. I think I actually like this better than standard, um, passion fruit—than *Passiflora edulis*. I think I like this better; it's got more like nuanced flavors in it.
This here is a thimbleberry, and you can see why it gets that name. This fruit is native to the western and northern United States. The one that I found was in Vermont. Thimbleberries are in the same family as blackberries and raspberries, but they have a uniquely large opening on them. This has its pros and its cons. The pro is that you could put these on your fingers like a thimble, and that's fun. The con is that this makes it very, very delicate. In order to enjoy a thimbleberry properly, you're going to have to pick it yourself. These do not last very long off the plant, and if you do find them, you are in for a treat. The flavor of these is really, really good; it's like a concentrated raspberry and strawberry sorbet. Besides the berry, the plant also has some other interesting uses. How Native Americans would use it is that they would make a tea out of the leaves, and that was used for a number of things, but mostly for digestive issues. Hardcore campers and survivalists have another use for it that is not too dissimilar: they use the leaves as toilet paper. Yep, the leaves are big, and they are fairly soft, so they, they suit that purpose pretty well. So there you go, a very useful plant for a number of different occasions. Keep your eyes open for these because there's a lot of uses for them, but mainly they're very, very tasty. [Music]
This right here is the yucca—no relation to the yuca. This is yucca as in the beast of Yucca Flat starring Tor Johnson—that kind of yucca. Here's another plant that is very popular with survivalists. Yucca is most common in the southern areas of the United States, and it has many, many different edible parts. You can eat the stems, you can eat the seeds, you can eat the fruits, but it also has other uses. Native Americans used the roots in order to make a soap, and the leaves of yucca can be used to make rope. In order to eat the fruit, you either have to cook it or you have to wait until it's really, really, really squishy. At that point, the pulp on the inside gets the color and consistency of blackberry jam. You can even dip a knife into the fruit and spread it directly on toast, although you might want to strain out the seeds first. The flavor of yucca is like a mild blueberry jam mixed with bitter molasses. It's something that I would, uh, not just eat if I'm starving in the desert; this is something that I would seek out. [Music]
This is an Osage orange, also known as hedge apple, monkey brains, monkey balls, horse apple, hedge balls—yeah, yeah, it's an interesting one. The Osage orange is a very strange fruit that is actually related to jackfruit; it kind of looks like one in a way. Originally, this fruit is native to the area around the Red River basin in Texas and Oklahoma, but since then it's been introduced all across the U.S. The reason why it was only found around this one small area is because the Osage orange trees are an evolutionary anachronism, meaning that there was once an animal that ate the fruit and would spread the seeds in its poop, but that animal has since died. Some other animals are interested in this fruit, but it's mostly squirrels and other small animals that will rip apart the fruit in order to eat the seeds, and if a squirrel eats the seeds of the Osage orange, it kills the seed, so it can't spread. Horses are known to also eat Osage orange, but they also destroy the seeds when they eat it. So even today, there really isn't a way to spread the seeds except humans, and humans have spread the seeds of this; they plant them not for the fruit but for the wood. The wood of the Osage orange tree is extremely hard and it's also resistant to rotting. Native Americans used the wood in order to make bows, and early European settlers would use it for fencing. This is a channel about fruit, though, so what about the fruit? Is there any use to the fruit? Well, some people swear that you can use the fruit of the Osage orange tree in order to repel insects; however, I have not found any evidence showing that this is actually effective. There is an edible portion to the fruit, though—the seeds—but to get the seeds out of the fruit, you have to go through a lot of trouble. The fruit is hard and full of latex, so it is obnoxious, messy, and time-consuming to get the seeds out, and when you do get them out, there isn't all that many of them. I did once go through all of the trouble of separating out the seeds and then roasting them, and the end result was pretty good. Is it worth all the effort, though? Hell no! Can eat hedge apples, or at least the seeds, and it just requires a lot of patience and a lot of effort for a relatively small return. It'd be good like punishment for your children if they misbehave—have them seed the hedge apple. Then all you have to do is bake them up, and you get a nice little treat. [Music]
May apples are not apples; they're not related to apples, and they don't fruit in May—not sure why they have that name, but they do have another name: American mandrake, but they're not related to mandrakes at all. Earlier, I talked about the maypop, but now it's time to talk about the may apple, an unrelated fruit that is also native to the eastern United States. The may apple is not just even harder to find than a lot of the other fruits on this list; if you don't do it right, you can actually get hurt. That's because if you do not eat the may apple at just the right stage of ripeness, it's poison. This fruit is also very popular with animals, so even if you get to the plant at the right point in time, chances are that a squirrel probably got it first. Okay, so you got to the plant at the right point in time, you thought of all the squirrels, and you got to the fruit—great, are you done? No! Well, unfortunately, each plant only produces one fruit, and that fruit is small and full of inedible seeds, and if you eat those seeds, you will probably get very, very ill. So you have to then cut it open and separate out just a tiny bit of pulp and eat that pulp, and if you go through all of that trouble, you are rewarded with an incredible flavor that is coincidentally not all that different than the maypop because it also tastes kind of like strawberry and lemon, but honestly, it's even better. If you're willing to take the extra time and go out and get this thing at the proper stage of ripeness and make sure you don't poison yourself, uh, it is really worth it.
So I was wandering around Forest Park in New York City, and I came across something that I've been trying to find for a while now: it is spicebush. Here's yet another fruit from the eastern United States. What can I tell you? I live in New York. The spicebush has a very interesting flavor that lends itself well to making tea out of it, or you can use it similarly to how you would use black pepper. The only difference, though, is that although spicebush kind of has the flavor of black pepper, it doesn't really have the heat. The flavor of the spicebush is so resiny that it actually has the species name *benzoin*. I'm not sure if it actually has any of the chemical compounds of benzoin, but it definitely does share the smell and the flavor. Other parts of the spicebush can be used, including the leaves and also the twigs. Native Americans used the spicebush as a medicine; the leaves, I believe, were used in a tea. Ho [Music]
This here is aronia, also known as the chokeberry—not to be confused with choke cherry, which I've reviewed in the past. The chokeberry is native to the eastern and central United States. Unlike a lot of the fruit that I've mentioned so far, this berry is widely cultivated; in fact, it's used in many different commercial products. They are used in jams, juices, teas, candies, baked goods, etc. However, very few Americans know about this fruit. How is that possible? Well, although this fruit is not popular here in the U.S., it is popular in Europe. Chokeberries were introduced to Europe in the 18th century, and today they are very popular in several countries from that part of the world. This is a fruit that has so much potential that other countries can see it, even though here it still struggles. There is good news, though: the chokeberry does have some regional appeal. You might be able to find it at a farmers market in some of the central United States. Also, there are some efforts being taken to introduce locally grown chokeberry products to the rest of the US as well. Let's hope that it works out. I don't drink, so maybe I need to start drinking aronia juice so I can fit in at parties. Oh, it tastes good, but it is strong, and that flavor is kind of like cranberry but with more depth to it; it's almost like bready—it tastes like a dark molasses-y rye bread. Yeah, I think this is something that you would actually want to sip at, kind of like you would sip wine.
Cloudberries are the truffle of the fruit world; they are notorious for being one of the most elusive fruits to find. Cloudberries grow in the northern United States, and they even grow in my state of New York. Are they common, though? Absolutely not. They only grow in a very specific environment; they are extremely perishable, and each cloudberry plant only produces one fruit. Although cloudberries are native here, they are so rare that in order to find them, I had to go to another country. The easiest place to find cloudberries is probably in northern Europe. There, you're not going to find them at a supermarket, but you might be able to find them at a farmers market. But unfortunately, these berries are so perishable that the ones you find at farmers markets are often kind of mushy. If you want to have these in their best possible shape, you actually have to go forage them yourself. The flavor is truly unique; it's a bit like apricots and oranges but also rich and savory tasting, kind of like olive oil. The cloudberry was one of my favorite fruit hunting adventures because they are such an elusive fruit, and they only grow one to a plant. Each time I saw a little speck of orange in the forest, it was like finding a little treasure. The cloudberry, like a lot of fruit on this list, is extremely difficult to find, but the adventure in finding it is so much fun. It might be a little bit windy here in Lapland, very, very high up, uh, in the world—more north than I've ever been—and I think this is probably a good point to mention the reason why. Oh god, that's like pretty lame because you're just like a geek that likes fruit. That's true, but that is not the main reason why I fruit hunt. I normally would not have gone; I came here to look for berries, guys, and along the way I happen to find things like this—definitely very interesting, get to learn a lot, but more so than anything, you get experiences like this. So there you go: 10 of the weirdest fruits that you can find right here in the USA, and I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you want more information about any of the fruit that I've talked about in this list, I have put the links to the full episodes in the description below. I also have several other top 10 videos that are not just the USA; they're from countries all around the world. I'll put some links to those in the description as well. Thanks so much, everybody. I'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Thanks once again to Brightland for sponsoring this video. Hey, before you click away, I'd like to give a big shout-out to my mega patrons, that includes SmarterEveryDay, Sean M, Glenn, and LoftyRex. They are big supporters over on Patreon.com. Patreon is how I can continue to keep this series going, so if you'd like to help support the channel, take a look at the link in the description below. If you don't want to go on Patreon, another way to support the channel is to buy a t-shirt. T-shirts are available also in the description below. Thanks so much, guys. Bye-bye.