The Tropical Fruits of Key West

Our neighbor, Lillian Carey, was a spinster lady who lived next door to my grandparents. Her yard had a sweetsop tree, also known as a sugar apple, sugar-pineapple, or custard-pineapple. We knew it as a sugar apple. The heart shaped or pine cone shaped fruit had a bumpy skin. When one of the bumps was pulled it yielded a candy corn shaped piece of white pulp over a small black seed. It tasted grainy and sweet. Yummy!

(Photo courtesy of Hellkt)

My grandparents had a banana tree in their backyard that produced mini bananas we called Cuban bananas. They had a thinner skin than regular bananas and a sweeter taste. They measured about 3-4" long. I always liked them better than regular bananas.

My other favorite banana was the plantain, a larger, starchier version of a banana used in Cuban cooking. For wonderful fried plantains, you had to let the banana turn black, then peel it, slice it up and fry in a little oil until it was soft inside and had a nice crispy outside. Oh, my mouth is watering just thinking about them. One of my favorite meals was my Mom's fried cod fish cakes with a side of fried plantains.

(Photo courtesy of Marian Szengel)

(photo is in the public domain)

Guavas. What can I say about guavas? We ate them fresh off the tree from Miss Lillian's yard, or in guava perserves, guava jelly, guava duff, .... My favorite was in guava duff. Miss Lillian would make it by placing the batter with guava bits in tall triangular pans set in another pan of boiling water on the stove top. It produced a thick, spicy cake which she served hot with a sweet, white, thick egg sauce poured over it. To die for!!!

The fruit peeled, then preserved in halves was good served in a bowl with sweet cream poured on top. Then there was guava ice cream too. Seems like Grandma made ice cream out of every fruit she had available.

Oh, I do miss Spanish limes. Young boys used to climb the trees in Key West, collect the Spanish limes, string them along a stick, and go through town selling them. The smooth green outer shell was hard but fairly thin. You would bite it to crack it open. Then you would suck the pulp off the large seed. They had a sweet tart taste. So good!

(Photo is in the public domain)