How To Eat A Wild Passion Fruit

If you pay close attention, like Bear is doing, I'll show you how to eat a "Maypop", or Passion Fruit.
This is the native, wild passion fruit by the way ... what else would you expect here at Pure Florida.

First, before we begin ... let me apologize to this fruit. In an earlier post, I gave a less than flattering opinion of their flavor.

That fault was mine, the fruit I tasted back then was not quite ripe.

That was my passionate apology.

These fruits will turn more yellow as they ripen, but this one is actually ready. If I leave them too long, the coons get 'em, so I usually wait as long as I can stand it, and then pick.

The fruit is produced by a crazy, beautiful flower, on a vine that is favored by Gulf Fritillary butterfly larvae.

I post about it here.



To eat a passion fruit, slice it in half with a sharp knife.

The styrofoamy layer just inside the skin is not the part you eat. It's job is to protect the pulp in the center of the fruit.



Each little black seed is surrounded by a capsule of juice.
This is what you eat ... pomegranate style.

The flavor is  ... hmmm ... lemon-limey?

Something like that.

I saved the seeds and plan to start some of these,even though they seem to spread on their own just fine, thank you very much.

If you go to the USDA fact sheet on this plant, it sounds like the plant is a pharmacy in itself.

"The Houma, Cherokee and other Native American tribes used purple passionflower for food, drink, and medicinal purposes. Captain Smith, in 1612, reported that Native Americans in Virginia planted the vines for the fruits. The fruits were eaten either raw or boiled to make syrup. A beverage was made from the fruits by crushing and straining the juice. Sometimes the juice was thickened by mixing it with flour or cornmeal. The young shoots and leaves were eaten, cooked with other greens. The roots were used in an infusion to treat boils, and to "draw out inflammation" of wounds from briers or locusts. Babies were given a tea made from the roots to aid in weaning. The roots were beaten with warm water and used as eardrops to treat earaches. Root infusions were used to treat liver problems. "

I don't know about all that, but I do know the fruit is tasty, the flowers are spectacular, and the vine is a super host plant for certain butterfly species.

AND it's a native.

I have a passion for natives.