CHAPALA - As spring temperatures rise, the Mexican market fills up with sumptuous seasonal produce. It is the peak season for gobbling up juicy and refreshing cultivated fruits like watermelons, cantaloupes and mangoes.
Now is also the only time of year shoppers will find some more unusual fruits of the earth. Sidewalk vendors outside Chapala’s municipal market were enjoying brisk business this week as shoppers huddled over baskets filled with pitayas, guamuchiles and ciruelas de la barranca harvested around the Jalisco towns of San Marcos and Amacueca.
The pitaya is a cactus fruit appreciated for its delicate and refreshing flavor and variety of dazzling colors. It comes in shades of white, orange, pink and magenta. The ripe fruit is about the same size as a kiwi and is consumed in a similar mode, tiny seeds and all.
A classic regional hot-weather treat, the pitaya is only available during a six-week harvest season that will run until the middle of next month. It can be used as a dessert, salad or fruit drink ingredient or downed solo as a quick thirst-quenching snack.
The guamuchil—sometimes called guamara – is a spongy, nut-like fruit that grows in green and pink-tinged pods on the tree of the same name. Local families are often seen trolling neighborhood streets and back roads during the month of May in search of guamuchiles that they pull off the branches with wire hooks attached to long poles.
There isn’t much you can do with a guamuchil other than pull the fruit out of its twisted, leathery pod, chew it up and spit out the fat seed. For most non-natives, guamara munching is an acquired taste. The fruit is said to have medicinal qualities that include eliminating parasites in the digestive system and staving off the typhoid bud. Eaten in excessive quantity, it may cause a discomfiting bout of flatulence.
The ciruela de la barranca is a type of wild plum. When ripe, the oval fruit maintains a deep green skin mottled with purple patches. Its tangy flavor makes it a good choice for preparing a pitcher of agua fresca, a cool liquid refreshment that quells a parched palate.
Prices quoted in Chapala this week should tempt even the uninitiated to sample these rare goodies. Pitayas were selling for five pesos each, or three for 10 pesos. A three-quarter kilo bag of guamuchiles was going for 20 pesos, or three bags at 50 pesos. A bag of ciruelas weighing just over one kilo was priced at 20 pesos.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
