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Lucuma
Appears in
Published 2014
Pouteria lucuma, known as lucmo in its native Peru, also grew in Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile. It is closely related to the canistel and is also known as egg-fruit. It is ovoid, with bronze-yellow skin, yellow flesh, and one to four hard brown seeds. It ripens after it has fallen to the ground.
The flesh (and a fruit can weigh up to 1 kg/2.2 lb) may be eaten raw, or pulped and used in pies. It can be dried and ground into a coarse meal for cakes, biscuits, or ice cream. It can be used in place of sugar, for it tastes, some think, like maple syrup. It is now grown outside its original sphere and (thanks to a high vitamin B3 content) is promoted, in its powdered form, as a new ‘superfood’.