Wonderful breadfruit!

If you've never heard of breadfruit before you must definitely read up on this wonderful plant, it's story is fascinating! Artocarpus altilis is the scientific name. It grows as a medium to large tree, with fabulously large deltoid leathery leaves and large green ovoid fruit. The fruit are very dense in carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals - and can be cooked in many different ways, similar to potatoes. It was the food that fueled the Polynesian migrations across the Pacific - from west to east - with the canoe people taking fruit for food on the way, and little plants to start off new plantations in their newly-discovered islands. Closely related varieties which are seeded exist in New Guinea - and then from west to east, progressively, the varieties have fewer seeds until they are completely seedless in Samoa and Tahiti. Did seedlessness occur because the Polynesians selected for seedlessness, or was it a consequence of them propagating the plants from sprouts from the base of the tree (vegetative propagation)?

Breadfruit tree in Samoa

When Joseph Banks accompanied Captain Cook on the Transit of Venus voyage to Tahiti in 1769, he was floored by breadfruit! In England, carbohydrates were hard-won through cultivation of the land (to grow potatoes and wheat), while here in the Pacific they only need be plucked from the trees! On his return to England he convinced the King that breadfruit would be extremely useful in the Caribbean Islands, providing food for the slaves working in the sugarcane plantations - and the botanical ark (alias the Bounty) was sent forth with Sir William Bligh as Captain, Fletcher Christian and crew to obtain the breadfruit tree and bring it back to England. Did you know that the seedless breadfruit was the root cause of the infamous mutiny of the Bounty? Polynesians had perfected the art of rooting these cuttings, but it apparently took the crew of the Bounty many months to achieve success - by which time, the crew had fallen in love with  local Tahitian beauties and were a little reluctant to pull-anchor and sail back to England. Their subsequent mutiny and voyage to Pitcairn Island, where they burnt the boat and thus stranded themselves there (there are no trees on Pitcairn worthy enough to build canoes or boats, so they were totally stuck there) is, as they say, history.

Larger fruited variety.

I've just got back to Wellington from a trip to Samoa to see these trees up-close and personal, and give them a good old hug. I was expecting that each family would have a tree in their garden - but I was not expecting to see as many trees as I did, they were absolutely everywhere! The most common variety had round to ovid fruit, but there seemed to be a fair amount of variation in tree size, leaf shape and fruit numbers/characteristics.

Fugalei Market in Apia, Samoa

The Fugalei market in Apai had the most incredible variety of fruit and vegetables - but I did not see any uncooked breadfruit of these common varieties for sale, possibly because every family has a tree so why buy them? (Breadfruit are called ulu in Samoa). I did however find some breadfruit crisps (which were delicious), and a completely different variety of breadfruit which was huge. It probably weighed 3 kilograms - and I can't imagine how these would be supported by a tree's branches! My Samoan host, Lele, told me this variety is called Aveloloa, which is a bit cheeky in Samoa because it refers to its appearance not unlike a large-woman's breast. Lele self-consciously giggled when she told me the name, and then told me it is traditionally used to make a dish called Taufolo. First the fruit is baked whole in an umu (oven), which is covered with coconut fibres. When the fruit is cooked, it is peeled then mashed and formed into balls. A dipping sauce is then made with coconut cream and sugar, heated with a hot stone from the umu and the Taufolo are dipped into this. Sounds fabulous! Lele's husband Sau prepared an umu-cooked breadfruit for me for my last night on Savai'i island, with coconut cream to dip it into. It was absolutely delicious - it's texture was much softer and creamier than potato.

Me with a large breadfruit variety called Aveloloa at the Fugalei Market in Apia.

In the 1980s, the botanist Dr. Diane Ragone went all through the Pacific collecting different breadfruit varieties and has set up a collection at The Breadfruit Institute, at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens in Hawai'i. She has worked tirelessly to promote this fruit for food security in developing nations, and has worked with a German biotech company who have successfully managed to initiate the plants in tissue culture. A New Zealand company in Auckland is one of only a few worldwide who have managed to micro-propagate the tissue cultures and initiate whole plantlets and I have great hopes that this wonderful plant will soon be propagated en masse to be sent to developing nations in Haiti, Honduras, Caribbean and African nations - so that families and local communities are able to produce food in abundance, much like I saw in Samoa!