Hey, so I am in Portland, Oregon, right now and just walking around and i've been noticing like
a lot of fruit just hanging from trees and falling on the ground and it's a surprisingly large amount of it.
and i'm just kind of curious what is edible and what isn't.
And I'm not very well versed in foraging and you go out and even if you think you know
what something is it can be just very similar looking to something that's edible
so you have to be very careful when you go foraging
I'm not an expert with plants or anything it's just something I just like doing. So just walking around, and being like "Can I eat that?"
I don't know. I'm just walking around taking pictures of things and seeing what's out there.
Ask people and stuff like that.
But I did see something that I did recognize. I knew what it was.
Because it's something I've researched a little bit. It's called the strawberry tree fruit.
Now the reason I researched it a bit is because a while back I actually ate something called the strawberry tree fruit.
But there are three different fruits called "strawberry tree fruit."
Because they have certain similarities to strawberries but strawberries don't grow on trees.
The first one I came across I reviewed it while I was at the Homestead Fruit and Spice park.
There just little pink berries that grew on a tree. They were called strawberry tree fruit because
the leaves of the tree look like the leaves on a strawberry bush and also the fruit itself tastes like strawberry.
I described it in my video as a little more like strawberry milk. It was like a milky creamy strawberry taste.
The one that I came across at the fruit and spice park it's called Muntingia Calabura.
I might be saying that wrong, actually i'm probably saying that wrong
There's one that grows in Japan called Myrica Rubra. I'm probably saying that even worse than the first one.
And there's one called Arbutus Unedo. Also saying that wrong I can guarantee it.
Arbutus unedo is the one that I came across here in Portland.
It's not native here, it's not from here, but it is a popular plant
just for landscaping, ornamental uses. People don't really eat it but it is actually edible.
Arbutus Unedo and the one, what ever the hell it was, that's in Japan those I believe are both called strawberry tree fruit because
the fruit itself looks like strawberries. I mean correct me if I'm wrong, but they do.
So here is an up close shot of the strawberry tree fruit. It's pretty cool looking.
It looks a little like a lychee or pulasan.
But it's soft, it's very squishy.
Break this open.
I'm not sure if you can eat the skin, but I'm not going to because it's probably not going to taste very good.
It's definitely going to have a really weird texture to it.
So I'm just going to eat the inside. Really bright orange flesh on the inside.
It's not bad.
It's very gritty though. Very sandy taste, there. Those might be little seeds or something. But very gritty.
The flavor is a familiar taste. I'd say it's like...
...maybe a little like peach or mango.
But really, really muted. It's like a really muted fruit.
It's kind of bland.
Here, this one is a little bit darker, let's see if maybe that means it's matured a bit more.
Still gritty.
But it's a little sweeter.
There's some tartness to it but it's not very sour.
Like similar tartness that like a peach would have.
It tastes like a very bad peach. Like if you went and got a peach that was just kind of gritty tasting.
Like not perfectly ripened peach. Like a not very sweet peach, not very flavorful peach.
That's what this tastes like. So they're not bad. It's just a little underwhelming.
It actually reminds me a lot of the Kousa Dogwood.
which i've reviewed before, and it's something that i've foraged as well
I don't know if there's something to that, their not related fruits at all
but it tastes very similar because Kousa Dogwood if you remember I said also tasted like a muted peach and it also was gritty.
So these taste actually very similar.
Let's try one that's a little bit yellow.
The texture on the inside is just like mush.
The yellow ones are actually less sour. I was kind of expecting it to be more sour
because it's not perfectly ripe but it's actually just a little bit blander.
It doesn't taste better
but the sour taste is little bit less
You know what? i'm going to try it with the skin
I don't want too because I know it's probably going to be awful and have an awful texture
but why not?
Tastes about the same, maybe a little woodier because of the outside bit
Certainly going to get a bit more fiber that way
but it tastes better without the skin
Yeah, it tastes the same. It's pretty across the board like a muted peach flavor with like a gritty texture kinda like Kousa Dogwood
It's like actually Kousa Dogwood tasted a bit better
I remember it having more of a Mango Peach flavor
This one is like a really bland version. Kousa Dogwood had a little bit of a stronger flavor
But really interesting and rare too, it's just really cool to me to be walking down the street
and see something that I know I can eat and just like pick it off and eat it
That's like a very powerful thing for me
I don't know, it's cool to do that. I wish that I knew more about different plant varieties
and you know, as I keep doing these videos and learning, I'm probably going to learn a bit more
and the next time I'm in Portland, I see all these crazy fruit growing off the trees I can be a little bit more aggressive with it
But yeah, kinda terrified that I'm going to pick something off and eat it and die
But this one for sure is the Strawberry Tree Fruit
And... I wouldn't recommend it you know? Like going out of your way for it?
But if you are in the Portland area and Seattle area, keep an eye out for it
you might be able to find it in other places as well
But i've been seeing this several times while i've here in Portland
so certainly something to keep an eye out for
and i'm going to take another look around to see if there's anything else I recognize and maybe
i'll make a couple more foraging videos
If not, till next time, thanks!