I made an uvaia mermelade

[huertasurbanas]

During these weeks I harvested approx 60 fruits of uvaia from different trees, it was not such a big crop but it was enough for me to make tests: the juice has a similar flavor to passion fruit, although maybe a little less strong ... the fruit opens and gives off a aromatic juice that, with sugar, is very good (you even dont need to include the rest of the pulp and skin).


Then I kept the fruits in the fridge to make a jam that was extremely delicious and has nothing to envy to the best jams on earth. The flavor reminds me a bit of the tropical guava but also has shades of passion fruit, orange, ubajay and mango. I would say that it is clearly tropical, strong and interesting. The color is also attractive because it does not remain brown as it happens with many other fruits, but orange.

[Luisport]

YUMMY! It just looks great! Congratulations! 

[joehewitt]

Wow that looks delicious! I wish I had so many Uvaia that I could try such an experiment.

[huertasurbanas]

[huertasurbanas]

Wow that looks delicious! I wish I had so many Uvaia that I could try such an experiment.

I hope you will have them... if you have more than one plant, they will fruit better. When you cook the fruit, it vary in flavour, but it is a nice and interesting variation. I will do a packaging design and sell the mermelade some day...

Now I am eating it cold and It remembers me to a perfect mix of tropical guava and feijoa. If you know both fruits, I would say the mermelade tastes just like that.

[joehewitt]

You are growing Uvaia outside in zone 9?

I am in zone 9b (California) and my Eugenia pyriformis isn't too happy this winter. Not dying just looking sickly.

[huertasurbanas]

You are growing Uvaia outside in zone 9?

I am in zone 9b (California) and my Eugenia pyriformis isn't too happy this winter. Not dying just looking sickly.

Well, sometimes they lost almost all their leaves (or look sickly, yellowish), but I dont know why... if it is because of the cold or another thing... but then they sprout very well and do fine. In my garden they take -3º C rarely on winter, but in the house of my parents, maybe -6º C 1 or 2 times per winter. Normal frosts are -1º C to -4º C there... we use to put an automatic watering (drip irrigation) system during the early morning to avoid frosts.

[Solko]

That looks delicious!

Do you find a lot of variability in the taste, size and sweetness of all your Uvaia’s? I know that you have trees from a lot of different sources and I was wondering how variable the different fruits and flavors are.

[joehewitt]

Some pictures of my Uvaia that is struggling a bit. Looks like a combination of cool weather and dampness, perhaps some fungal disease taking hold. We haven’t had any frost. It’s in an air-pruning pot so drainage should be excellent. I think it will probably be fine but I might have to prune it back a bit.

With all the different Uvaias out there I’m not really sure if this is Eugenia pyriformis or some other species. It was purchased as a seedling from the Hawaii-based “Polynesian Produce Stand” seller on eBay.

[Solko]

Your plant looks very different from all the Uvaia’s I have, Joe. But mine are all still a bit smaller. To me your plant looks more like my Ubajai.
In an old post Adam from Flying Fox Fruits also has pictures from an Uvaia with the same broad leaves with veins in them. Maybe he could tell you for sure.

[huertasurbanas]

That looks delicious!

Do you find a lot of variability in the taste, size and sweetness of all your Uvaia’s?

Hi, thanks, not too much, this year I realised I have 2 species or 2 varieties (maybe more but one of them didnt fruited yet): one of them is sweet/acid and the other one is acid. Maybe both are pyriformis but I dont know. The sweet one could be an hybrid of pyriformis x lutescens. The acid one has rough skin, but I know there are sweet uvaias with rough skin too.

I know that you have trees from a lot of different sources and I was wondering how variable the different fruits and flavors are.

Very variable, I read that at Brazil they say they can get 30 varieties or so...

[huertasurbanas]

Your plant looks very different from all the Uvaia’s I have, Joe. But mine are all still a bit smaller. To me your plant looks more like my Ubajai.
In an old post Adam from Flying Fox Fruits also has pictures from an Uvaia with the same broad leaves with veins in them. Maybe he could tell you for sure.

I agree, it looks like ubajay (eugenia myrcianthes)... do you have photos of the fruits? what about the taste and the smell?

[joehewitt]

It hasn't fruited or flowered yet so we have only the leaves to go on. I have a couple variations of E. myrcianthes (aka Hexachlamys edulis) and they look very different from this plant. Eugenia is such a mysterious and confusing genus.

My other Eugenia pyriformis plants (sourced from the highly reputable Miguel.pt) have tiny leaves and look totally different.

[huertasurbanas]

It hasn't fruited or flowered yet so we have only the leaves to go on. I have a couple variations of E. myrcianthes (aka Hexachlamys edulis) and they look very different from this plant. Eugenia is such a mysterious and confusing genus.

My other Eugenia pyriformis plants (sourced from the highly reputable Miguel.pt) have tiny leaves and look totally different.

All I can say is that uvaia is the most ubajay looking one! But it could be uvaia, being that there are so much variations of them. Maybe we can smell crushed leaves?

What about if you crush the leaves of ubajay and smell them and then you do that with this uvaia and with the other uvaias?

For instance, my ubajay leaves smell is soft... maybe similar to grass, but my uvaia leaves smell is stronger and "acid", myrtaceae smell...

[Solko]

Marcos, thanks for the background information. It seems indeed that there are sweet and acid types of Uvaia, as well as the hybrids and the velvety types.... as you said, all very confusing. That is why I wanted to find out wether there are a lot of different flavors within all the Uvaia’s.


And Joe,
yes, the Eugenia genus is very mysterious, but that is also part of the fun of collecting them.
Do you think you can post some pictures of your Ubajai, so we can compare the leaf type.
I found the thread where I saw an Uvaia with the same type of leaves:
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=1963.0
It is the last picture in Adams post. He also says that his plant is very different from Ubajai, if you examine them next to each other. He said the fruit as good.
If you ever get any seeds of your plant, I would be interested!

[huertasurbanas]

this one from Adam should be ubajay

http://postimg.cc/image/wqhvldjq1/

[joehewitt]

I will take some more pictures of the leaves up close.

I have two different types of Eugenia myrcianthes, one of which is a seedling of the tree described in this article. https://www.smgrowers.com/info/Eugenia_myrcianthesOrpet.asp

[huertasurbanas]

I will take some more pictures of the leaves up close.

I have two different types of Eugenia myrcianthes, one of which is a seedling of the tree described in this article. https://www.smgrowers.com/info/Eugenia_myrcianthesOrpet.asp

Cool article, but they didnt said nothing about smell and flavour, do you know how does it tastes? does it smells "bad" or to acid? That ubajay looks pretty, mines are just like that too but, for now, only the acid types beared fruits.

[huertasurbanas]

more ubajays:

[joehewitt]

Here are some closeups of the supposed Uvaia leaves. As you can see they are not fuzzy like Ubajay leaves.





Here are leaves from my two Ubajay trees, one from Brazil and one from Santa Barbara.

[huertasurbanas]

Maybe these are sweet ubajays?  the uvaia leaf looks weird, I dont know