Tamarillo
Taste: sweet and sour, aromatic, notes of orange
How to eat: cut and eat the pulp with a spoon (the peel is bitter)
Ripeness: red-orange peel
Storage: refrigerated for 10 days
Solanum betaceum (syn. Cyphomandra betacea) is a small tree or shrub in the family Solanaceae. It bears egg-shaped fruits and is an edible fruit. Other names include tree tomato or Tomate de árbol.
Tamarillo is native to Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia. Tamarillo is a tomato tree that bears single fruits or in clusters of 3 to 12 ovoid fruits. They vary in size from 4.5–8 cm long and 3–4 cm wide.
The surface color of the fruit can be dark purple, dark red, orange or yellow, and the fruits may be streaked with thin longitudinal dark lines. The color of the flesh varies from orange-red or orange to yellow or creamy yellow. While the skin is quite firm and unpleasant to the taste, the outer layer of the fruit is juicy and mild. The flesh is soft, juicy and sweet-sour, surrounded by seeds with two long compartments. Yellow fruits are usually slightly sweeter. The fruit inside can be dark, dark purple, red and yellow in yellow and orange fruits. The edible seeds are thin, almost flat, round, larger and harder than those of a regular tomato.
Tamarillo is rich in calcium, carotene, niacin, phosphorus, iron, protein, vitamin C and thiamine.
Tamarillo is often eaten raw. The fruit has a sweet-sour taste and is therefore popular for salads, stews, jams, jellies, juices, and pie fillings. The skin can be eaten, but has a very bitter taste.
