by Texas Homesteader
Today I’m falling back into the archives & bringing back to the surface a post just for YOU that’s proved very popular with my readers in the past. Today’s Thrifty Thursday post was an easy decision for me – PRESERVING JUJUBES!
It seems everyone is interested in these mysterious fruits of the past. Last year at a site where an old abandoned homestead once stood I stumbled upon an overgrown grove and I was curious – what could this grove be? I submitted pictures of the leaves, trunk and fruit to my extension agent and they identified the tree as Jujube. It seems many old homesteads from days gone by planted jujubes, as they were a hearty and productive tree with few pests. I harvested buckets of those fruits and experimented with different ways to dehydrate them to use in my homemade pumpkin granola. Intrigued about this mysterious fruit? Read on, dear friends…
~TxH~
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Honestly; I have never heard of them before but after a bit of searching I found that they are actually a Chinese date.
Also found the following recipe
Fresh, crisp, ripe jujubes taste like a sweet apple, or, occasionally, like a pear. Fully ripe, red-brown fruit tastes like dates and is even more delectable after drying and candying. Chop up dried jujubes and use them as you would dates or raisins.
CANDIED JUJUBES
(From California Rare Fruit Growers Association Newsletter)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
5-1/2 cups sugar
3 pounds dried jujubes, each poked with holes
5 cups water
Sift together the cornstarch and sugar, add to the water and boil. Carefully add the jujubes and simmer without covering for 30 minutes. Stir to prevent sticking. Allow the pot to cool, then cover it and refrigerate overnight. Boil jujubes and syrup again and simmer again for 30 minutes. Place cooled fruit in a food dryer and dry until it resembles dates.
That sounds great Colleen – thanks! You always have some great ideas. ~TxH~
When I lived in central Texas I finally figured out that the prolific skinny , thorny trees were jujubes, but never learned how to use the fruit. Seems that I recall their having seeds, like an apple. How do you deal with them? Thanks.
Well, this post talks about my methods for preserving them. The seeds of my jujubes are not like an apple, more like a small pit of a plum. It’s somewhat labor intensive, but I liked the finished product of the grated jujubes best. ~TxH~