Author Topic: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip  (Read 1521 times)

Pouteria_fan

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Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« on: October 21, 2022, 02:12:09 AM »
Got the opportunity to check out the Hilo, Hawaii farmers market. Also went to the Lavacore store nearby ( black sapote was from Kona market). Ended up with the following haul:



The Rollina, mountain apple, and santol were all new to me.
The Rollina definitely reminded me of lemon meringue pudding - excellent taste and texture!

Abiu seems to be my least enjoyable sapote-family member SSI far. The taste has hints of vanilla and caramel but it's very mild and very meh in texture.

Hawaiian papayas taste so much better than the ones labeled as "Mexican " papayas at local California grocery stores imho. Sweeter and less acid-like taste.

The Mamey sapote was excellent as well, not many of them for sale.

All in all a bit of a splurge but it was a delightful taste smorgasbord!
« Last Edit: October 21, 2022, 02:14:26 AM by Pouteria_fan »

Finca La Isla

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2022, 09:30:37 AM »
Sounds like fun. I don’t see the rollinia in the photo. Abiu can be good cut into a fruit salad or in a breakfast cereal.
Peter

elouicious

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2022, 10:44:47 AM »
Nice Haul!

for some reason the picture is being cropped weird for me as well but I can see a corner of the rollinia,

Bummer about the abiu, do you know what variety it was?

Jaboticaba45

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2022, 10:56:26 AM »
Nice haul... I never liked abiu until I tried one from a grower in FL. Very good. With all the seedlings floating around I'd assume fruit quality varies a lot. I wouldn't write off the fruit just yet.

Epicatt2

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2022, 11:07:16 AM »
...for some reason the picture is being cropped weird for me as well but I can see a corner of the rollinia,

FYI, there's a gray slide bar below the photo & bottom message which you can drag to view the right hand side of the photo.

And yes, that is indeed a nice haul.  I'm still hoping to get to try some biribá (Rollinia) here in Florida before too long.

Cheers!

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JCorte

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2022, 11:25:06 AM »
Beautiful!  Thanks for sharing.  Are you allowed to bring back the seeds?

Janet

Vegan Potato Man

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #6 on: October 21, 2022, 01:33:37 PM »
Check out the Maku'u market down near pahoa. I was never really impressed with the Hilo Market. I did get a cempedak last time for 5 bucks a pound tho...

The locavore store is great, they often have mammee apple.

Abiu seems to be my least enjoyable sapote-family member SSI far. The taste has hints of vanilla and caramel but it's very mild and very meh in texture.

Just FYI, "sapote" only means soft sweet fruit and aren't necessarily related. Black sapote is related to persimmon and white sapote is in rutaceae. Mamey and abiu are in pouteria, which is a wastebasket genus, so they may or may not be more related. (I could be wrong, taxonomy tends to go way over my head.)

Also Abiu has a lot of variation so I'd suggest giving it at least two or three more tries. We like them before they get too ripe. Still looking for e4 abiu to plant too...
« Last Edit: October 21, 2022, 01:42:17 PM by Vegan Potato Man »

Oolie

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #7 on: October 21, 2022, 02:29:10 PM »
How was the santol?

Pouteria_fan

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #8 on: October 21, 2022, 04:46:22 PM »
Nice Haul!

for some reason the picture is being cropped weird for me as well but I can see a corner of the rollinia,

Bummer about the abiu, do you know what variety it was?

I'm not sure on the variety, many of the sellers didn't seem familiar with specific varieties of produce in general, including the avocados.

The santol was alright, a bit like mangosteen, sweet sour, not quite to my taste but not terrible.

The mountain apple / Rose Apple certainly taste like rose!


cassowary

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #9 on: October 21, 2022, 06:37:41 PM »
Beautiful!
Is this time of the year peak fruit season in Hilo?

Those are some tiny Diospyros digyna and with the calyx dry and black like that with green fruit skin I doubt it was picked mature.

Is that a NDM hiding behind the rollinia??
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Gone tropo

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #10 on: October 21, 2022, 10:58:53 PM »
Interesting assessment on abiu compared with Rollinia. Here rollinia is not even comparable I with abiu  in my opinion, abiu is just that much better.

SHV

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #11 on: October 21, 2022, 11:23:39 PM »
Nice haul.  I’m heading to the Big Island this weekend and would love to score a Rollinia and Cacao while I’m there. This give me hope there is still plenty of good fruit in season.

Pouteria_fan

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #12 on: October 22, 2022, 01:42:17 PM »
Beautiful!
Is this time of the year peak fruit season in Hilo?

Those are some tiny Diospyros digyna and with the calyx dry and black like that with green fruit skin I doubt it was picked mature.

Is that a NDM hiding behind the rollinia??

I'm not sure about peak season. However, seems like all the markets had a reasonable variety, with the Hilo market having the most.

And yes, good eye! That is a nam doc Mai mango I believe. It wasn't labeled but based on shape we thought it was.

It took the cake for absolutely fantastic quality - very happy I purchased a tree from Wong's in Mecca of that variety.

I'll give the Abiu another try, hopefully it's better. This was a stretch in terms of edibility.

I wanted to go other markets on the south side of the island, next time!

SHV

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #13 on: October 26, 2022, 12:41:17 AM »
Enjoyed several days driving around the Big Island picking up fruit at every farmers market and fruit stand I stumbled across.
Kona farmers market has some excellent mangos, rainbow papaya, and red bananas.



Next stop was Pure Kona green market in Captain Cook.  Scored some excellent Jabos for cheap, Strawberry papaya, and Cacao. Cacao has excellent flavor, but where’s the meat???



Hilo side has the remaining fruit I was questing.  Grabbed some Abui, a giant 2.5 lb Rollinia, and some nice apple bananas. Rollinia was interesting but not nearly as sweet as I expected from an Annona.  Still, a very cool looking fruit with a unique taste and texture. Kinda looks and feels like a dog squeak toy from the outside. I, too, though Hawaiian abiu was disappointing.  Flavor was like young coconut flesh. Just bland.



Pouteria_fan

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #14 on: October 26, 2022, 11:45:16 AM »
Thank you, SHV!

Looks like a fun trip. Wish I had made it to some of the other markets too, jealous!

Sounds like we are on the same page when it comes to abiu from Big Island markets, at least this time of the year.

At the Hilo market, from what I recall, there was only one vendor selling Rollinia, and she only had 3-4 pieces. She said I picked the best one (really, she picked it when I asked which was most ripe), so perhaps the others left weren't as good.

Vegan Potato Man

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #15 on: October 26, 2022, 12:11:50 PM »
Enjoyed several days driving around the Big Island picking up fruit at every farmers market and fruit stand I stumbled across.
Kona farmers market has some excellent mangos, rainbow papaya, and red bananas.


Cacao has excellent flavor, but where’s the meat???
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There are theobroma species with more pulp, such as bicolor and grandiflorum

FloridaGrower69

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #16 on: October 26, 2022, 05:11:42 PM »
Nice!!!  Bucket list trip 👍

SHV

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #17 on: October 26, 2022, 05:53:07 PM »
Thanks for info Potato Man!  I will keep my eye open in the future for these.  The flavor was very tasty for the meager pulp provided.  Now they just need to breed a seedless Cacao for maximum fruit enjoyment.  The seeds aren’t necessary right???

palologrower

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #18 on: October 28, 2022, 02:35:27 PM »
Hilo Farmer's Market can be horrible.  They know the tourists won't try the fruit till they get back to their hotel and realize they.  Lying to me telling me the durian is musang king when it's just monthong.  Selling unripe marang as pedalai. 
Selling stolen fruit in some cases. 

I'd buy the vegetables and common fruits...but when it gets to the pricier/higher regarded stuff, know what you're looking at. 

socalbalcony2

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #19 on: October 28, 2022, 03:17:11 PM »
Hilo Farmer's Market can be horrible.  They know the tourists won't try the fruit till they get back to their hotel and realize they.  Lying to me telling me the durian is musang king when it's just monthong.  Selling unripe marang as pedalai. 
Selling stolen fruit in some cases. 

I'd buy the vegetables and common fruits...but when it gets to the pricier/higher regarded stuff, know what you're looking at.

Don't forget the imported stuff at/from Costco lolol.. many disingenuous sellers at the farmers markets..

Pouteria_fan

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #20 on: October 29, 2022, 01:02:36 PM »
I did see several mangoes there, that they had a big sign up saying they were from Hawaii, but each mango still had the grown in Mexico sticker from Costco haha

SHV

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #21 on: October 29, 2022, 01:11:55 PM »
Yeah, they were all Keitt mangos in Hilo. The mango I picked up Kona was a Hawaiian variety but I didn’t catch the name.  It was absolutely delicious.  Incredible smell before cutting it open with a poly seed. I would have picked up more, but there weren’t enough ripe ones where I was confident they would be ready to eat before I left. 

palologrower

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Re: Hilo Farmer's Market shopping trip
« Reply #22 on: October 30, 2022, 04:48:36 AM »
I did see several mangoes there, that they had a big sign up saying they were from Hawaii, but each mango still had the grown in Mexico sticker from Costco haha

yeah very true.

as for the abiu, lots of guys just grow seedlings so the quality is varied.