Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Three Leaf Akebia

Akebia growing in a friend's backyard

Just starting to split

Open it up and enjoy the sweet pulp. 
I love wild food. And this is one of my favorites! Akebi. In this case, it is an "Ishi Akebi" (stone akebia) as opposed to the "Murasaki Akebi" which is purple. Sweet pulp, seedy as a passionfruit. But you can just eat the seeds, no problem there. The only problem is that they grow so far up in the trees! I was lucky with this one. My oldest son was walking to the meeting place to go to school, when he stopped, pointed at the ground, and said "Daddy! Akebi!" Sure enough, there were two overripe ones that dropped off the vine laying on the sidewalk. So I looked up, and there were a bunch of them, some within reach! Hooray!

Akebi enjoy growing on the edge of the forest, which around here means along the roadside. So around this time of year, I keep an eye on the ground, looking for dropped fruit. Then I make a note of it, and know where to come back to in the future. 

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