The end of May I visited the Silang, Cavite property of my cousins. I was there last year to scrutinize their mystery tree, which turned out to be a lipote. They called it igot but just the same it was the caulicarpic (stems bearing the fruits) Syzygium which I later learned was not curranii (which I earlier blogged about) but Syzygium polycephalum (I was corrected by Leonard Co).
I remembered visiting last year about the same time (May-June) and the tree was already in fruit. But this year, what I found on the tree were still flowers. I wondered if the fruits came late this year, or maybe the flowers would not get fertilized and become fruits at all... But last Sunday my cousin came to the house carrying the familiar fruits. They harvested bagsful and one was already assigned to be given to my dad. For this past week, he has been eating the lipote berries after every meal. He eats them like the very similar duhat.
The lipote berries are washed, placed in a covered bowl with rock salt, then shaken. The taste is very much like duhat, sweet sour but with a little 'pakla' or bitter after taste. To people who fancy the lipote's flavor, you would have to make your trip now to the southern Tagalog areas before the lipote fruit season is over.
7 comments:
I have been searching for this fruit for a long time. I am from Bicol & we call this amhi or baligang. As a kid, we used to have lots of baligang trees around our neighborhood & used to climb it or use a long pole with a small basket at the top to pick the bunches of fruits along with all the ants that usually covers it. Our neighborhood trees had the sweetest & biggest variety of baligang that I had ever seen & tasted. Sadly those trees are all gone now & it is very rare to see them in the markets of Bicol when it used to be sold all over the place during summer. I miss it so much that one of the items in my "things i need to do before i die" list is to look for saplings or seeds to revive them in my hometown. Thanks for posting & giving me hope that they're still around.
if you are ever in manila let me know. i have a few seedlings.
How do you store your seeds? How long can I store a seed? Doesn't it loose its viability after a long time in storage?
it looks like it is only viable for a short period. i sent them to friends in moist tissue to maintain them as fresh as possible.
Hi from Indonesia.
I just bought a sapling. They are being cultivated here. We call the Lipote > Gowok. Stil rare
i saw the berries still in branches used for table centerpieces and it looked awesome! a designer's dream. will look around in cebu for some seedlings.
Is this still available at Silang? Thanks
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