Some of you may remember our almost obsession with jujubes. It’s sometimes hard to differentiate fact from fiction about things like this but this sight lists some benefits of jujubes.
We originally started looking for them after reading that they are resistant to bugs and they tolerate drought. The plants are not always easy to find. There are different varieties of jujubes – many varieties. Some are quite sweet, some are quite large (the size of a large grape). Some are flavorless and quite small. They remind me a lot of a green olive. There’s a seed in the middle. It isn’t a cling fee type seed so basically, you put the whole thing in your mouth, chew on it, then spit the seed out.
A blog reader actually found a seedling somewhere in CA, let me know about it and we ordered it. Not even sure how long ago that was but my guess is it was about 7 years ago since we’ve lived here 9 years. That’s our first tree in the above photo. See all those white pipes? That’s everywhere a seedling has popped up from that mother tree. We stand out there, pick jujubes, eat them and spit the seeds out right by the tree, and this is what we’ve ended up with. There are at least ten little trees and many of those are blooming and producing fruit!
This is a little sprout from a seed near one of our newest trees that we planted two years ago and look — it’s already producing!
That’s the little tree on the left and the “mother” tree on the right. Hard to believe almost every jujube tree we have, and I think there are 6 of them now, but there are at least 5 little trees near every tree we have so, some day, our entire orchard may be jujubes!
That’s ok – they’re easy to grow. They don’t take a lot of water, which is always in short supply here. We hardly do anything with them and they’re our best producers.
The fruit – some say it tastes like a date. I think it tastes like an apple. I’m going to use it to make mint jelly and I’m going to cook them down, put them through the food mill and see if I can make something similar to applesauce with them.
They definitely are an interesting little tree and I’m glad we’re growing them.
Deborah A says
I was curious, so I looked up “recipes for jujubes”. Wow! Seem to be so many uses. Have fun!
Judy Laquidara says
They’re such a versatile fruit. I’m so thankful Vince found out about them and I try to spread the word about their amazing qualities.
Jane Kuchuk says
LOL At first I thought you were talking about the candy!!!!
Judy Laquidara says
Everyone seems to think I’m talking about the candy and I have never seen a jujube candy and didn’t even know about it till readers started talking about it.
Susan Nixon says
I’ll have to come through in harvest time and take some seeds to N. AZ when the time comes. Sounds like it might do okay there, if it can take some cold, too.
Judy Laquidara says
We have nights down in the single digits sometimes – not often but anything that isn’t cold hardy, all it takes is one night.