Page 50 - French Polynesia

What is Breadfruit?

B readfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is a species regions elsewhere. mash mixed with coconut milk and baked in
of flowering tree in the mulberry family, banana leaves. Whole fruits can be cooked
Moraceae, growing throughout Southeast B readfruit is one of the highest-yielding in an open fire, then cored and filled with
Asia, South India and most Pacific Ocean food plants, with a single tree produc- other foods, such as coconut milk, sugar

islands. It is also grown in the Leeward ing up to 200 or more grapefruit-sized fruits and butter, cooked meats, or other fruits.

Islands and Windward Islands of the Carib- per season. In the South Pacific, the trees The filled fruit can be further cooked so the

bean and in Africa. Its name is derived from yield 50 to 150 fruits per year. In southern flavor of the filling permeates the flesh of

the texture of the cooked moderately ripe India, normal production is 150 to 200 fruits the breadfruit.

fruit, which has a potato-like flavor, similar annually. Breadfruit is a staple food in many S ir Joseph Banks and others saw the
to freshly baked bread. Ancestors of the tropical regions. The trees were propagated value of breadfruit as a highly produc-
Polynesians found the trees growing in the far outside their native range by Polynesian

northwest New Guinea area around 3,500 voyagers who transported root cuttings tive food in 1769, when stationed in Tahiti

years ago. They gave up the rice cultivation and air-layered plants over long ocean as part of the Endeavour expedition com-

they had brought with them from Taiwan, distances. Breadfruit is very rich in starch, manded by Captain James Cook. The late-

and raised breadfruit wherever they went and before being eaten, they are roasted, 18th-century quest for cheap, high-energy

in the Pacific (except Easter Island and New baked, fried or boiled. Very ripe breadfruit food sources for British slaves prompted

Zealand, which are too cold). Their ancient becomes sweet, as the starch converts to colonial administrators and plantation own-

eastern Indonesian cousins spread the sugar. Breadfruit can be eaten once cooked, ers to call for the introduction of this plant

plant west and north through insular and or can be further processed into a variety to the Caribbean.

coastal Southeast Asia. It has, in historical of other foods. A common product is a

times, also been widely planted in tropical mixture of cooked or fermented breadfruit