Cashews / Mangos

June Plum

Native to Melanesia and Polynesia, this fruit is now heavily planted in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. The flesh is crisp and slightly tart, surrounding a fibrous seed. Due to the seed, they cannot be easily sliced or pitted, so are often eaten out of hand. In Indonesia and Malaysia they would be accompanied by a little shrimp paste. They are also pickled, cooked for preserves, juiced, and used in sauces, soups and stews.   Details and Cooking.

Hog Plum

This tree is native to the tropical Americas, but now found in the tropics worldwide. It seldom cultivated but picked wild. The fruit flesh is eaten fresh or used for juice and jelly. In Thailand young leaves (Bai Makok), which have a slightly sour-bitter taste, are eaten raw with nam phrik, a chili condiment variously made. The fruits are used in green papaya salads in Thailand and Laos.   Photo by Marco Schmidt distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike v2.5.

Jocote

This small to medium size tree is native to the tropical Americas, and now cultivated in the tropics worldwide for its fruits. Cultivars are being selected for fruit quality and yield to improve the crop. The fruit is like a tiny, round mango, sweet when ripe, very tart when not yet ripe. Unlike the mango, the skin is often eaten with the fruit.

While they are most commonly eaten ripe, either fresh or simmered in a syrup, they are also eaten not quite ripe with salt and lime juice. The photo specimens, previously frozen, were about 1.6 inches long and 1.4 inches diameter, the largest weighing about 1 ounce. They were purchased from a large multi-ethnic market in Los Angeles, 2012 US $2.85 / pound, bagged in the freezer section.

Umbu

Native to Bahia state in northeastern Brazil, this is an important fruit in dry regions because of its high yield and drought resistance. The spherical fruit, which can range from 1 inch to 2 inches diameter, may be light green to light yellow when ripe. The flesh is soft, juicy and sweet, often mixed with other fruits and and used in fruit juices, jams and sorbets. It has to be harvested by hand because it is quite delicate.   Photo by Daniele Gidsicki distributed under Creative Commons Attribution v2.0 Generic.

Brazilian Pepper Tree

Fruits of this tree are used in the Caribbean for both seasoning and medicinal purposes. "Pink peppercorns" from trees growing in Florida were reputed to cause an allergic reaction in some people (throat irritation) so the chefs get their berries from the Caribbean island of Réunion. Whether this is a real problem or just a move to protect a cash crop on Réunion I do not know, but I've had no problem with the ones from my trees here in California.

This low growing tree is extremely invasive in wet climates and almost impossible to eradicate, particularly a problem in Hawaii and Florida. It can be told from the California / Peruvian pepper tree by the rounded tips of its leaves and it's low, dense, even sprawling growth habit. Note in the photo new spring growth with the berries on the previous year's growth. Details and Cooking.

California / Peruvian Pepper Tree

[Peruvian Mastic tree, Schinus molle]

This tree is very common in Southern California and is easy to tell from the Brazilian Pepper Tree. It grows as a large tree with drooping branches bearing very long leaves with many narrow sharply pointed leaflets. The Inca used the berries to make fermented beverages and flavoring syrups. The tree is also used as a medicinal, but is toxic to some animals and possibly small children. I get these leaves and berries from the Bank of America parking lot down on the corner, but find the berries of my Brazilian pepper trees to be much sweeter and milder. This tree is drought resistant and is a serious invasive in South Africa and Australia. Details and Cooking.

Pistachio

Pistachios used to come from Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. Today I see some Turkish in markets serving Mid Eastern communities, but Iranian aren't much available due to embargos. Afghanistan seems to have found opium more profitable.

California has taken up the slack. After testing 13 varieties, Kerman and Lassen were chosen for nut bearing female trees and Peters as a male pollen producer. Kerman and Lassen produce particularly large crisp nuts. The first harvest was in 1976 and California is now the second largest producer in the world at 400 million pounds.

Some have been saying Iranian nuts are better, but we can't know as Trump has renewed conflict with Iran. Iran does grow more varieties (C1). The Turkish I've found are good but often over-roasted. The photo specimens are all Californian. To the right are roasted nuts, in the center roasted kernels, and to the left are fresh whole fruits and unroasted nuts (probably not much available in North America outside California).

Mastic

This small tree is the source of Mastic Resin, used widely in Greece, Turkey, the Levant and Egypt as a spice, chewing gum and medicinal. Production is very labor intensive, so mastic resin is quite expensive. Nearly all is produced on the Greek island of Chios, where production has been somewhat reduced by a forest fire in 2012. Some has always been produced on the Turkish peninsula of Çeçme, just a few miles from Chios, and production there is being ramped up. It is used in sweets, baked goods, ice cream, fruit and vegetable preserves, soups and savory dishes. Details and Cooking.

Terebinth

This small tree is native to Iran, and around most of the Mediterranean, but largely replaced by very similar P. palaestina in the Levant. It was the original source of turpentine, distilled from the sap. Resins from these trees were used as a preservative in wine more than 7000 years ago. in Crete the fruits are used in a special village bread, and young shoots are eaten as vegetables in a few Greek locations.   Photo by MPF distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike v3.0 Unported.

Sumac Spice

Fruits of this Near Eastern species are used to make a dry purple-red souring agent used in place of lemon. It is widely used and sold in the U.S. simply as "Sumac". It is a very important ingredient in the region, so you can easily find it in markets serving Levantine and Middle Eastern communities. Do not attempt to use common North American sumac berries for this, as they will have various levels of toxicity.   Details and Cooking.

Staghorn Sumac

The fruits of Staghorn Sumac are soaked strained and sweetened to make a beverage similar to pink lemonade. The leaves were mixed with tobacco and smoked by Native Americans and some still use it that way. Photo U.S. Federal government = public domain.

Lemonade Berry

This species grows only in dry costal regions of Southern and Baja California. The name implies a drink similar to lemonade can be made from mature berries but I'm not sure what precautions (if any) should be taken. The seeds can be ground to extract an oil which solidifies at room temperature and can be used to make candles. This plant really doesn't look much like a sumac due to its solitary leaves. Photo distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike v2.5.

Poison Ivy | Poison Oak

Low growing plants with leaves in sets of three, but Poison Ivy can also be a substantial tree climbing vine, easily recognizable by the dense hairs holding it to the tree trunk. They are common in forested areas of North America, and contain significant amounts of the strong contact irritant urushiol.   Poison Ivy photo by Esculapio contributed to the public domain. Photo of Poison Oak by US Federal Government = public domain.

Poison Sumac

Shrubs and small trees up to 30 feet tall, native to very wet or swampy soils in eastern North America. Very little is west of the Mississippi or north of the Canadian border. They contain very significant amounts of the strong contact irritant urushiol, and are considered by some botanists to be the most toxic plants native to North America.   Photo of Poison Sumac by US Department of Agriculture = public domain.