Growing Mamey Sapote in Sarawak, Borneo

Morgan scratching the skin of Sarawak grown mamey sapote fruit to check whether it is ready to eat.  A ripe fruit will show a papaya orange red flesh.

Three weeks ago, I saw an unusual fruit at the Kubah Ria jungle produce market.  I get to know the name of the fruit from farmer, Morgan Chua.  The name is mamey sapote.  This fruit, a native fruit of Cuba, attracted a lot of attention from tourists and the locals.  They will snap pictures, buy it to taste this foreign fruit, perhaps, grow it in their gardens.
Most are snapped up.  I was lucky this time to capture the image of this fruit in video before they are gone.

 According to Morgan, he planted this fruit tree in his parents' land in the outskirts of Kuching city after a friend gave him a plant he brought back from Cuba.  It was washed clean of soil and wrapped with a piece of wet tissue and an aluminium foil.

This plant grew into a tree six years later and had been producing fruits for the fifth consecutive year.  A tree will yield more than a hundred fruits with a fruit weighing an average of 1.5 kilo to a maximum weight of 2.5 kilo a fruit.  It will take the fruit 4-5 months to mature after flowering.
A ripe fruit is detected by scratching the skin.  The flesh will show a papaya orange red colour when the fruit is ripe.  The texture of this fruit is smooth. The fruit is ready for eating after 3 days of harvesting it. It is cut in half, the seed removed and the flesh scooped out with a spoon.

Morgan told me his foreign customers had seen a similar fruit in Hawaii but it was very much smaller.  The Cuban specie is large.  Morgan attributed the quality of the fruit to Cuba's advanced organic farming technology.

Many attempts had been made to plant this fruit tree by seed propagation by other interested fruit growers but with no positive results.

This fruit is not seasonal.  It bears fruit the whole year through. This fruit is rich in potassium, carbohydrates, fiber, sugar, protein, vit A, vit C, calcium, iron, Vit B6, magnesium, manganese, riboflavin, niacin and vit E.

Morgan shows off  the last remaining mamey sapote with his customer who bought it.

Borneo fruit-The terap fruit of Asajaya(Artocarpus Adoratissimus)

This is the terap fruit native only to the island of Borneo.  In Sabah, it is known as the marang fruit.  There are other names.  Green pedalai, madang, tarap, timadang.  The botanical name for this fruit is artocarpus odoratissimus.  It is related to the cempedak and breadfruit families.  This fruit emit a strong sweet scent coming from the rind, a signal telling us the fruit is ripe for eating.  The rind has soft spines.  The fruit is prised open to reveal small white arils which tastes like custard apple.  A ripe fruit will fall to the ground and split open.  The seed is like the cempedak seed except that it is white. Like the cempedak seed, the seed of the terap fruit is edible by boiling.

Some say this fruit tastes like the cempedak fruit-very sweet and tasty. In Borneo, it is found in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. These fruits are cultivated in Sadong village in Asajaya. In times of abundance, the fruit are sold quickly with values rated according to their sizes.  The small fruit will be sold for RM5, a medium size RM7 and a large one for RM10.

Sarawak Wild Durian-Durian Nissa (Durio Oxleyanus Griff)

The locals in Sarawak call this durian 'nissa'.  In other parts of Malaysia, it is called 'durian isu' or 'durian sukang' in Sabah. This is a wild jungle durian.  It is probably the best of all jungle durians. This wild durian is smaller than other species of durians.  It is round and is the size of a sepak takraw ball.

 It has very long sharp thorns. Unlike commercial durians which have five compartments, this one has four.  The fruit is very sweet and aromatic.  Some say it tastes like vanilla.  Some say it tastes like almonds. This one is found growing wild in the jungle of Serian district. This durian is found throughout the island of Borneo and in Peninsula Malaysia.

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We have a bumper harvest of durians towards the end of 2013.  The durian season was at its peak in November. The wild durians are more expensive than the commercial ones.  It is sold for RM20 for 5 small ones or the same price for 4 .  

Is there any takers? You will probably eat four pieces in a fruit.

Borneo fruits-Sarawak crystal longan

This is the crystal fruit of Kuching city.  It is not a new fruit.  It is an old native fruit of Malaysia known as 'kasai' or 'matoa'.  This fruit is also known as the crystal longan or the crystal lychee.  Some local people call it 'dragon's eyes'.  Some say it tastes like longan.  Some say it tastes like rambutan.  The fruit looks like the colour of mangosteen with its dark red purplish colour.  To eat it, fruit sellers will teach us to crush two fruit in the palm of our hand.  Some would break its shell with a mortar or hammer.  The name 'crystal' stuck with us as the flesh is yellowish translucent, like a citrine crystal.  The fruit has moderate sweetness.  That is why it is popular with people who have diabetes.  This fruit has high economic potential with a kilo fetching a price of RM15.00 a kilo. The seed is like a longan-hard and enamel like.

Because of its catchy name, a young sapling will fetch a price of RM25.00.  People are keen to try out new fruit trees. Unknown to them, the kasai fruit tree can grow to great heights with its fruits perched very high on top of the trees. This fruit is widely cultivated in Lundu, a coastal village at the southern tip of Sarawak, probably because a timberman was so taken in by the fruit in Papua New Guinea that he came back and grew it.  This fruit is known as the Fijian longan in this neighbouring country.  The scientific name for this fruit is pometia pinnata from the sapindaceae family.

Some smashed it on the table.  Some stepped on it.  I used a karate chop to smash it open.

Borneo palm fruits-Sarawak's trusum fruit (Salacca Wallichiana C. Martius)

The Bidayuh of Sarawak, a state in Malaysia, in Borneo island, call this fruit 'trusum'.  In West Malaysia where this fruit is also found growing wild in the forest, it is called 'rekam'.  The botanical name for this fruit is Salacca Wallichiana C. Martius.  The synonym for this fruit is  zalacca rumphii.  This fruit is better known in Thailand as luk rakam. In Sarawak, this iguanura (palmae) chaiana is a new species. To many people in Sarawak, this fruit is unknown.  The salak fruit is more well known.

Unlike the salak fruit which is yellowish brown, the trusum fruit is dark ruby red.  It has the same snake skin.  This fruit is sweet and sour.  It is eaten raw.  The creamy white pulp is smooth and  juicy. There are two to three seeds in a fruit.  It is also made into a sambal with the fruit slices mixed with belacan (shrimp paste), pounded dried anchovies and small chili.

This fruit has a short pointed tip like the salak fruit. This is a palm fruit from the palmae family.  According to jungle produce market stallholder, John ak Jul, this fruit are harvested from the jungle at kampung Sungei Pinang in Bau district.  In other places in Malaysia, it is found growing wild in its natural habitat-the swamplands.  These fruits are found at mid-trunk.  A ripe fruit will turn maroon red. This fruit is not seasonal.  It can be harvested every month. 

Borneo fruits-The Sarawak Longan

The Sarawak Longan-This warty yellow longan is a subspecies of the dimocarpus longan and malesianus variant. Yellow longan are called 'kakus' whereas a green longan is called 'isau'.  Another species is oblong in shape.  It is green skinned and is called 'sau'.  

This fruit is more familiarly known as 'mata kuching' in Malay. In translation, it means cat's eye.  The Chinese community call this fruit 'long yan' meaning dragon's eye. It is also known as 'guring' or marbles.  This fruit is cultivated on the central region of Sarawak in Sibu division, Kanowit, Song, Kapit and Belaga districts.  It is a native fruit of Sarawak and is found along the river banks of Rejang river. This fruit is found also in China.

Unlike the Thai longan which is smooth skinned, the Sarawak Longan is warty.  The skin is thick and the flesh is thick, transclucent, very sweet and fragrant.  The seed is hard and enamel like.

The Sarawak Longan is rich in calcium and vitamin c.  It has very high economic potential with a kilo selling for RM8.00, a price higher than imported fruits.

This favorite fruit is available in January each year till early February in time for the Chinese New Year celebration.  This fruit is traditionally used to cast into the river by the romantic young and not so young alike during Chap Goh Meh, the fifteen night of Chinese New Year.  It is the Chinese valentine's day and hopeless romantics cast these longans to make a wish for a beautiful bride with big eyes.  Women, on the other hand, cast mandarin oranges wishing for a husband.

This fruit is eaten by first washing it with water and biting it to break the skin.  The flesh is very juicy.  This fruit is a member of the sapindaceae family of which the rambutan and pulasan are related.