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Taste the Tropics
Last Updated January 06, 2019
Welcome to Homestead and the Redland!
Farmers in South Dade grow more than the fruits and vegetables that make this region the nation's winter breadbasket. There's a cornucopia of tropical fruits here – mangos and avocados, carambola, lychee and longan, mamey sapote, banana and plantains, coconut, jackfruit, sugar apple, sapodilla and passionfruit, even cacao! Join us on a delicious journey through our unique fruit scene as we taste the tropics.
Cacao
Why We Love It: Velvety chocolate bars, rich hot cocoa and sweet bonbons all start with cacao, the dried and fermented beans of Theobroma cacao.
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Canistel
Why We Love It: In the same family as mamey sapote, canistel is also called eggfruit because of its bright yellow color. About the size of a peach or small squash, canistel (Pouteria campechiana) has thin, smooth,...
Dragon fruit
Why We Love It: Dragon fruit, also known as pitaya, is the fruit of several vining cactus species in the Hylocereus genus. Dramatic-looking, with pale green or yellow shoots and leathery pink or yellow skin, dragon...
Jackfruit
Why We Love It: Often bigger than watermelons, this colossal fruit belongs to the mulberry family – and can grow to more than 100 pounds!
Popular in Asia, the bright green jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)...
Longan
Why We Love It: After lychee season is over, its cousin, the longan (Dimocarpus longan), appears in South Florida. Like golden-brown clusters of grapes, longans are also sweet and juicy beneath their inedible skins,...
Lychee
Why We Love It: For only a few special weeks at the end of May and June, the treasured red, golf-ball sized fruits known as lychee or litchi are in season in South Florida.
Native to China, lychee (Litchi...
Mamey sapote
Why We Love It: Just about every Cuban café serves batidos – shakes – made with tropical fruits, including papaya, guanabana, banana and mango, but it’s the batido de mamey that’s the star of the show. Mamey...
Mango
Why We Love It: “When Captain Haden developed the Haden mango near Miami, he did a greater kindness to the state than the Plant or Flagler railroad systems,” wrote Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in Cross Creek Cookery...
Papaya
Why We Love It: Papaya (Carica papaya) may look like it grows on a tree, but it’s actually an herb. Similar to melons, papaya can be small as squash or larger – up to 2-3 pounds – with orange flesh that is...
Passionfruit
Why We Love It: Passionfruit (Passiflora edulis), also known as maracuya or parchita, grows as a vine with spectacular flowers and round fruits filled with pulp and seeds. Fruits can range from as small as golf balls...
Sapodilla
Why We Love It: Combine the juicy, slightly gritty texture of pear with a rich brown sugar flavor and you have sapodilla (Manilkara zapota). Also known as níspero, these brown fruits are soft when ripe, with...
Welcome to Homestead and the Redland
It's greater Miami's quieter side – mango and avocado groves, a historic Main Street reflecting South Florida's...
