The Biggest Fruit in My Garden

Artocarpus integer ( "CEMPEDAK " )
Note the size of the fruits and the manner of fruiting

These trees must have been here more than 50 years ago, looking at its height and size. Whereas the oil palm trees next to the left are just about two years old.

Due to the rain today( 7/11/07) which lasted the whole morning and afternoon intermittently, I decided to take a break in the mid afternoon to take a higher view of the farm. Look at what I found on higher ground ! A relative of the Jackfruit , locally called the "Cempedak". The Cempedak is the largest fruit you can find at my farm. There are about fifteen numbers of such trees here but the largest must have been planted more than 50 years ago.

The species Artocarpus integer is indigenous to Sarawak, Borneo and Sumatra. The Artocarpus family's name derived from the Greek words, artos=bread and karpos=fruit. Looking at the size of the fruits it is of no wonder why it was popularly grown by our forefathers. It was previously a staple fruit that could supply plenty of food sources for the family. Just imagine the bounty of having the fruits in your garden. Its young fruits are chopped into smaller pieces and mixed with coconut milk ( "santan") and served as vegetables. Its seeds when boiled are eaten with brown sugar or honey as snack. Its ripe fruits flesh ( aril) are eaten raw as table fruit or can be fried with corn flour and served as cakes for the afternoon tea. The ripe fruits can also be processed into jam, jelly and sweet which the locals here call "Dodol". In other instances the fruits can be dried first and then smoked to be kept as dried fruit preserves.

The Cempedak trees in my eco-farm bear fruits seasonally and in Sarawak different regions experience different fruiting seasons. In Bintulu for instance, the trees bear fruits from October till March the following year. It is interesting to note that the fruits are produced from the main tree trunks or branches. The trees can grow to 20 m high, have thick canopy of dark green, shiny leaves.

Today there is renewed interest to grow this tree in open parks and spaces under edible landscaping concept. There are frequently visited by wildlife especially the squirrel and flying foxes , which act as natural seed dispensers.

Looking up the tree, I begin to realise how we are like trees!.... in that we need space and we must create new leaves and direction in order to grow.

Reference:

Carter,W.V.(1984) Riches of the Rainforest . Oxford University Press,Singapore.