Wednesday, February 18, 2009

What is it?

In the spirit of the Slow Food Gastronomica Trivia night on Monday -that I unfortunately missed- I stumbled across a very interesting piece of produce at the market today.



I had no idea what it was, do you??

PS No, its not a frazzled underdeveloped tomato (like the ones in my garden!) or a fancy Thai eggplant...

Please leave guesses in the comments!
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

6 comments:

  1. Matt at Abstract GourmetFebruary 19, 2009 at 12:52 AM

    It looks kind of like a Calamansi (small lime), but it's hard to tell with it whole...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sharnee (Sugar and Spice)February 19, 2009 at 4:37 AM

    Is there some kind of nut inside? The little leaves at the top are stumping me a bit...looks like a fruit from a bush rather than a tree?...hmmm

    ReplyDelete
  3. LeighFebruary 19, 2009 at 5:35 AM

    It is indeed the fruit of a potato (fairly poisonous, BTW). If you cut it open, you will find many small seeds - called true potato seeds. You could plant them (same as growing tomato plants), but if you don't know where it came from, I wouldn't bother. Generally, potatoes are propagated by replanting pieces from a parent plant, so they are clones, and pretty much genetically identical within a variety. The seed from your fruit would yield genetically unique plants that might or might not resemble the parent... Growing potatoes from true potato seed is an act of plant breeding rather than a way to get a crop of spuds for table use in one season. It takes a few years of growing the plants out for them to reach their full potential so that the breeder assess which are worth keeping.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sunnybrae and all who sail in herFebruary 21, 2009 at 3:19 AM

    Hi Jack

    I hope you didnt try it.

    Leigh love your site.

    ReplyDelete
  5. kim at allconsumingFebruary 21, 2009 at 11:37 PM

    I would have said it was a mangosteen, so there you go.

    ReplyDelete
  6. stickyfingersFebruary 22, 2009 at 12:01 AM

    A potato fruit - wow. I tried an Ethiopian cucumber yesterday - it was round, very acidic and tasted of lemon. Fabulous!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)