Amazing Jabuticaba

Disaster 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:39:00 +0000

We had a marvelous crop of Jabuticaba berries in June. So we were looking forward to a fantastic harvest in September.

Here is our tree in the front yard in mid August with much more than usual berries.

The tree out in the back yard was loaded with berries also. with much more berries than usual. So we were expecting a very great harvest.

Then DISASTER STRUCK!

We had a very large possible harvest but all our fruit were hit by a rust disease in late August/early September. Therefore we have NO JABUTICABA nor MANGOES.

It was enough to make a grown man cry.

However we did get to make some Jabuticaba Jam from the berries of our next door neighbour. Her Jabuticaba berries were extraordinarily large this year.

We managed to get three and a third jars.

See . . . . here is proof we made some. What a mess, the pot boiled over.

But here are the four jars just waiting for toast and coffee next week. MMMMMMMMmmmmmm!
Wait until next year!

Photos by Urso Branco

A new year, a new crop

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:36:00 +0000

In late autumn (early June) we had a fresh crop of Jabuticaba berries. It was a small crop and usually the berries on the tree out front are bitter, but this year they were sweet.

Here were are just coming into bud.

There are many buds but not like they will be in September.

Soon they will be ready to eat. Just a snack.

They grow fast but this time not plentiful.

At the end of June you can see many berries up high for the birds.

They are growing big now.

The birds will enjoy the first fruits of winter.

But look how few are there for us. They were sweet but few.

Now in mid August the new crop is more plentiful.

We expect these ones, this year, to be big and sweet and plentiful because of the wet weather.

In September we will show you how wonderful this amazing Jabuticaba really is!

I always marvel at how Mother Nature glues the berries on the trunk of the tree!

Photos by Urso Branco

What a Great Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:02:00 +0000

On September 18 we were ready for a big harvest of Jabuticaba so we could make up to 6 jars of Geléia de Jabuticaba (Jabuticaba Jam).

Here are pics of what the berries looked like on the tree.

There are berries all over the tree. Here is Judy picking one.

They stretched way up the trunk.

They were plentiful all the way to the top of the tree.

So I started to pick some. Here is my first bowl.

Judy invited neighbours over to pick berries too.

Even Jabuti (the tortoise) got into the act. They love the berries.

The tree in the front yard has smaller berries.

There are many berries but they are not as good as the ones in the backyard.

But they sure are plentiful.

Look what the neighbours did to the tree in the backyard! They stripped it!

They picked ALL THE BERRIES way up beyond my reach. There are only berries for the birds remaining.

Photos by Urso Branco

What is in a name?

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:55:00 +0000

Wikipedia says:

The Jabuticaba (also called Brasilian Grape Tree, Jaboticaba, Jabotica, Guaperu, Guapuru, Hivapuru, Sabará and Ybapuru) is a fruit-bearing tree native to Brasil.

The fruit is purplish black, with a white pulp; it can be eaten raw or be used to make jellies and drinks (plain juice or wine).

The fruit tree (named jabuticabeira in Portuguese has red leaves when young, turning green posteriorly. Its flowers are white and grow directly from its trunk. The jabuticaba (Myrciaria cauliflora [Myrtaceae]) is a small tree native to the Minas Gerais region near Rio de Janeiro in southern Brazil grown for the purple, grape-like fruits it produces.

Traditionally, an astringent decoction of the sun-dried skins has been used as a treatment for hemoptysis, asthma, diarrhea, and gargled for chronic inflammation of the tonsils.

The fruit is 3-4 cm in diameter with one to four large seeds, borne directly on the main trunks and branches of the plant, lending a distinctive appearance to the fruiting tree. It has a thick, purple, astringent skin that covers a sweet, white, gelatinous flesh. Common in Brasilian markets, jaboticabas are largely eaten fresh; their popularity has been likened to that of grapes in the US. Fresh fruit may begin to ferment 3 to 4 days after harvest, so they are often used to make jams, tarts, strong wines, and liqueurs. Several potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory anti-cancer compounds have been isolated from the fruit.

The name is derived from the Old Tupi language"Red-footed tortoise" Jabuti (tortoise) + Caba (place), meaning the place where you find tortoises.

Here is the view from the back of our big tree. The berries are more plentiful and larger.

Here is our tortoise. They are called "jabuti" by the Tupi. Our Mr. Tortoise loves the berries. So does Mrs. Tortoise!

In a couple weeks we will all share in the bounty.

Photos by Judy Kennedy

Bountiful Jabuticaba, Sep 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:14:00 +0000

Two weeks after the berries started they are already big and turning colour. In a couple more weeks we will be having a great harvest.

Here are a couple pics of the Jabuticaba Tree in the front yard.

As you can see the tree is loaded with berries.

But look at the big tree in the back yard.

There will be lots of berries for everybody, birds, Me, Judy and the dogs.

Here are the easy ones for the dogs, right down at ground level.

Just look at the big clusters.

They are fighting for space.

I have never seen such a great collection of berries.

Even the back of the tree has lots of berries. These are at ground level.

So in a couple weeks we will have a big feast and make lots of Geleia Jabuticaba!! Mmmmmmmmmmm

Photos by Urso Branco

Jabuticaba flowers, Aug 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:29:00 +0000

Two days after we saw the buds they came out in full blossom accompanied by an army of bees.

These may have been Jatai Bees because they are very tiny and difficult to see on the blossoms.

This is the back yard tree. Look how dense the blossoms are.

Each of those blossoms will be a delightful berry within two three weeks.

An unbelievable horde of berry blossoms.

We are very excited with this spectacle. Soon we will be making delicious Geleia Jabuticaba, if I can keep Judy from eating all the berries. *SMILE*!

Photos by Urso Branco

Jabuticaba buds, Aug 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:11:00 +0000

We moved at the beginning of August and we were delighted to see we had two mature Jabuticaba trees at the new house, one in front and a huge one in back. On Aug 12th they burst into bud. Thousands of them!

Here is a collection of the buds just as they came out.

The buds came out way up to the top of the tree. The birds will love that!

They even came out right down to the ground. The dogs will love that!

Thousands of buds on the very tall tree.

Look at these clusters. Really amazing!

These are on the tree in the front yard.

They are all over the tree.

This shows the tree in the corner in the front yard. Handy for kids to jump the wall and steal the berries.

This is the view from the verandah. You can see the tree almost hangs over the wall.

We expect to have thousands of berries this year and we will make lots and lots of Geleia Jabuticaba!! Yummy!

Photos by Urso Branco

Canadian made Jabuticaba Jam

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:11:00 +0000

Today we had a revolutionary change in Águas da Prata. Urso Branco made Brasilian Jabuticaba Jam. The is that beautiful jam made from the Jabuticaba Berries grown in our yard and all over Brasil.

So this is not 100% Canadian, It is more like 98% Brasillian with a 2% Canadian content. Urso Branco made it under that watchful eye of his wife Judy, the expert (she made it twice already).

Here are step by step instructions to make Jabuticaba Jam (Geléia de Jabuticaba). All you need is the berries and some sugar and an empty jar with a screw top lid.

First gather as many berries as you want. We only intended to make 1 jar this time so we had a small amount of the berries. By the way, if you don't live in Brasil, Tough Luck! Come and Visit us to make your own Jabuticaba Jam.

Put the berries in a pot.

Use your fist to smash the berries.

Cover the berries with water.

Now boil some other water in a small pot. We will use it to sterilize the jar.

Pour the boiling water into the jar and the lid. Swish it around, dump it out then set the jar aside.

Now boil the Jabuticaba berries.

Every so often take a sample and see if it is getting dark.

When it is dark enough it is ready for the next step. The juice should have thickened enough to drip slowly from the ladle or spoon.

Pour the juice from the berries into a seive over a pot.

Don't press unless you feel you must. Just dump the skins and seeds.

Now you have a pot with delightful juice ready for the next stage.

Pour it into a glass bowl and mark where the juice comes up to in the bowl.

Pour the juice back into the pot.

Get a bag of crystal sugar.

Put it into the bowl up to the mark you made with the juice. This doesn't have to be exact. I just used three fingers on the side of the bowl. That was close enough.

Put the sugar into the pot with the juice.

Stir well to mix the sugar into the juice.

Now boil it!

Stir occasionaly.

Bring it to a vigorous boil.

It may take 5 to 15 minutes depending on how much juice you have. Then take a small pot or a ladle and scoop the juice from the pot.

Pout it into the sterilized jar. Then cover immediately.

It should look exactly like this. Let it stand for two to three days to thinken.

Now you are ready to serve the finest jam you ever had. It goes nice on toast.

So if I can make it you can too! Try it.

I guess this process will work with most berries. Try it an let us know how you make out.

Photos by Urso Branco

Jabuticaba February 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:49:00 +0000

Summer is here, rain is here and so is the summer crop of Jabuticaba. But this year it is different as these photos will show.

These ones in Judy's hand are much larger than normal. Also, look at the trees and see big differences.

Notice there are not many berries but some are quite large.

There are not as many clusters as there are in autumn. But still there are many in the trees in our garden.

Here you see three stages of berry development - green, red and black.

Before they are ripe that have a pretty red colour.

But look at the bark on the tree. That may be normal but it doesn't look healthy.

The branches look almost like they could drop off the tree.

We can see we will have a bountiful harvest this summer.

This is the "male" tree. It has very few berries and they also are very small.

But look at the trees in our neighbour's yard. They have very few berries. We do not know why.

Hopefully we will get enough berries to make some more "Geleia de Jabuticaba", if only Judy and the dogs will stop munching on the berries!

Photos by Urso Branco

Picking Berries and making "Geléia de Jabuticaba"

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 11:34:00 +0000

What is happening here? I think she is picking berries in our Jabuticaba trees. *SMILE*

Yes that is what is happening. Look at that box of lovely berries.

She made a thorough inspection of the fruit.

Then a month later Judy made some "Geléia de Jabuticaba".

We then had "Geléia de Jabuticaba" on toast. It was fantastic!

We were so busy making the "Geléia de Jabuticaba" we forgot to take photos of making it. This video shows how to make your own "Geléia de Jabuticaba".

Click here to watch the Video

When we make the next batch I will take photos of how we make it.

Photos by Urso Branco

The Bees Returned - 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:42:00 +0000

Early in the morning of August 9, 2007 we were awakened by the sound of a thousand bees at work in the Jabuticaba trees. The scent of the blossoms filled the entire house with a delightful aroma all day. The bees worked steadily from sunup till close to 4 p.m. That was much longer than last year because there were so many blossoms this year.

We have lovely photos of the trees in full blossom with far more blossoms than last year. Even the male tree, which usually has very few blossoms is loaded. Look at rest of this post and see the fabulous video on making "Geléia de Jabuticaba".

These trees are over the wall in the yard next door. Look at thousands of blossoms.

If you look close enough you may be able to see some of the bees.

The bees made an incredible noise.

Look how tightly packed the blossoms are.

This is the male tree in our yard.

You can see there are fewer blossoms but still there are many more than last year.

You can see the bees is this close-up.

Another view with bees.

You can see some little berries beside the blossoms.

Look at this bee hard at work. He paid no attention to me!

Up close the blossoms are very fine.

Here the detail shows the blossoms with emerging berries.

There are many thoudands of blossoms this year and so we are planning to make some "Geléia de Jabuticaba".

It should be fun! Go to this YouTube site and see the marvelous video of making the Jabuticaba Jelly. When we make our own "Geléia de Jabuticaba" we will have photos and hopefully our own video making the Jabuticaba Jelly.

Click here to watch the Video

Come back soon and see more photos as look after and then harvest the Jabuticaba berries.

Big News . . . A month later we picked some Januticaba Berries and made our own "Geléia de Jabuticaba". It turned out FANTASTIC!

Judy made these two jars of "Geléia de Jabuticaba".

It spreads easy on the toast. It also goes down easy too!

Unfortunately we were so busy making the "Geléia de Jabuticaba" that we forgot to take photos. However we followed the steps in the video exactly. We will try to remembert to take photos when we make the next batch.

Photos by Urso Branco

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:35:00 +0000

The Amazing Jabuticaba Trees

This is the story of the Amazing Jabuticaba trees.

In March it looked like Mother Nature had Crazy Glued the berries to the tree trunk!

March 5

March 5

July 9 Thousands of new fruit blossoms on the trees.

July 9

August 2 Thousands of green Jabuticaba berries on the trees. We expect to have lots of berries.

August 2

August 2

Now it is August 12. We were having breakfast at 8 a.m. on a sunny winter morning. I went into the kitchen and heard a noise.

It was a steady Hummmmmmmmmmm or maybe better put, it was a steady Buzzzzzzzzzz.

There were thousands of bees at work in the Jabuticaba trees. They must have a great Union because there were so many working so hard so early in the morning. So-So bees?

Now look what we discovered! The Jabuticaba trees have three stages of fruit.

One - Black berries ready to eat (even the dogs jump up and pick the berries).

Two - Green berries, another new crop already.

Three - thousands more blossoms and the bees hard at work doing their job.

What an amazing sight!!!!

August 12

August 12

August 12

August 12

August 12

August 12

August 12

August 12

August 12

Maybe we should try to make jam this time!

The Jabuticaba trees produce berries at least twice a year and if you water the trees they get loaded with many thousands of berries.

They are truly amazing trees!

Photos by Urso Branco

noreply@blogger.com (Urso Branco) — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 16:57:00 +0000

The Amazing Jabuticaba continues to amaze.
(Ja-boo-chee-caw-ba)

We have two Jabuticaba trees in our backyard. A male and a female tree. What is the difference? It is all a matter of pollination. If you don't have a male with the females you get anywhere from none to few berries.

The first three pics are of our female tree. This is the third generation of fruit this season. That in itself is Amazing, but look at the proliferation of berries and their size. WOW!

These berries are about 1" in diameter (2.5 cm). They are full of juice and waiting for people, dogs or birds to pick them.

This group is out of reach of the dogs but Judy can reach them and she does, a lot! *SMILE*

A friend of ours had a Golden Lab that used to pick the berries and take them to the cat for her to eat. She never learned to pick them for herself. Now that the Lab has died my friend must pick the berries and take them to the cat. Well that sure shows who is boss!!! Our cats cannot reach the berries because there are too many "Viscious" dogs guarding the trees. Hahahaha!

Here is the male tree. Notice how few berries there are. Also, these berries are not as sweet as the ones on the female tree. I tested the theory myself and can vouch for this fact. Yuck!!!

Judy loves the Jabuticaba as do most Brasileiros but I prefer berries I am more familiar with such as Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries and Cherries. I find Jabuticaba may be an acquired taste. I do love Jabuticaba jam though. Mmmmmmmmm! Maybe I will get to love the berries and then I can pig out on them too, providing Judy, the dogs and the birds leave me some. *SMILE*

The way you eat them is put the entire berry in your mouth, split it open, suck out the juice and flesh and then discard the skin and the seed that is inside. The flesh has a distinct taste like no fruit I know.

We have many avian visitors to our trees. We have all the common birds from this area such as I See You, Greens (our name for green parrots), Blue Birds and many more. Greens are real chatter boxes. They make a lot of noise and there are many in Águas da Prata. You hear them all the time. They usually fly around in groups of 2 to 16. But the latest visitors were a surprise.

On Thursday (Sept. 21) I heard what sounded like a crowd of Green Parrots in the trees outside my window. Instead it was just one HUGE parrot. It was all green and almost the size of a large Macaw. It took this pic but it is not as good as I like because of the sky in the background. I enhanced it so you could see our visitor. That is a "used" tangerine in the tree in front of the Jabuticaba.

Two days later, Saturday morning, there was a much louder noise. Our new friend brought his mate to look over the Jabuticaba tree. They had an animated and loud discussion about our trees. These beautiful parrots are about 18" long (45 cm).

We have been seeing many new birds including Toucans, in the neighbourhood for the last few days but not in our yard. The Toucans come over the mountain and then fly over our house. They are starting to visit Águas da Prata in big numbers now. Any day now we may have Toucans in the yard also.

Such is life in the Spring in paradise!

We will bring you more about the Amazing Jabuticaba as changes develop.

Photos by Urso Branco