Been watching the fruit closely the last month or so. Always remained hard and no detectable smell when near them. My fear was they would be ready while in PR the week before last. I was a little lazy this week and waited till this morning to inspect. I figured to remove a few of the smaller fruit as well. Soon as I got near the tree, I could smell jackfruit. The next thing I noticed was that one of the smallest fruit had rotted and fallen off the tree. A quick look revealed no flesh at all. No surprise there.
I grabbed the largest one and it was very soft. Shit...my mother-in-law would be kicking me in the ass if she were here. The other big one was much greener looking but had a split. So I cut both off. The larger one was a little over 10lbs and the other a tad over 7lbs.
It was obvious I waited a bit too long on the big one. I easily tore it open and much to my delighted surprise, it was loaded with huge, glistening carpals. Definitely soft too. Way too soft. However, the flavor was incredible and it was by far the sweetest jackfruit I've ever tasted...and I've tasted some very good ones in Thailand. The sweetness and flavor was enough to overcome the soft texture. My wife thought it was very good but she did not like the texture at all. One bonus was that all of the rag was just as delicious. It truly was 100% edible flesh. Some of this one will be used for making ice cream and other desserts. My wife has been watching video recipes all morning.
The other jack could have stayed on the tree another week at least but it had a split. The flesh was much firmer. Not nearly as sweet as the other but still very good. If I could have caught the bigger one in a stage between the two, I think it would have been a winner in taste and texture both.
As for latext? Really wasn't an issue when messing with the carpals and rag. If I got into the skin, then I could tell the knife was gumming up a bit. But not bad at all. I did wear gloves while doing all the cleaning though. To give you an idea how far along the bigger fruit was, some of the seeds had already started to germinate. Still damn good and should make some awesome ice cream...add a little coconut and...