ISLAND PLANTS

July 1998 Table of Contents - Current Issue of The Abaco Journal - Abaco Bahamas' Home Page

ISLAND PLANTS

GUAVA

There is no official Bahamian dessert, but if there were one it would have to be Guava Duff. It's odd that an English-style steamed pudding should be so popular in the tropics yet the dish makes good use of this tasty, fragrant fruit. Guavas also make a delicious jam or jelly.

A guava tree (Psidium guajava) is tough and fast-growing. Specimens are often found along roadsides and in waste areas. The brown bark always seems to be peeling but is an attractive feature. The leaves are light green and strongly veined and the one inch diameter flowers are white with lots of creamy stamens. Guavas tend to bear from July through to October.

Native guavas tend to be of golf ball size and shape while cultured guava fruits are larger and more pear-shaped. The skin of a guava is yellow when ripe and the flesh may be white, yellowish or red. The skin is so fragrant that one ripe guava in a house can be immediately detected by a visitor.

Guava Duff demands that the fruit be cooked, but guavas can be enjoyed out hand. The old timers say you should close your eyes while eating guava - not so you can enjoy the flavour more but because then you will not see the little Caribbean fruit fly worms that inevitably infest the flesh.

(The recipe for Guava Duff appeared in the Abaco Journal of April 1995)

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