Raspberries, cherries, cherimoya (?), oh my

I'll admit that one of the reasons that I wanted to do a full-year sabbatical was to take advantage of another summer and all of summer's bounty.  I went to the local feria (farmer's market) on Sunday and was just thrilled by the abundance of fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, apricots, peaches, and cherimoya!  OK, the last one I have yet to warm up to.  It is also known as a custard apple and is native to the Andes but apparently is grown in California as well.

Ripe fruit

From wikipedia: The fruit is fleshy and soft, sweet, white in color, with a sherbet-like texture...Some characterize the flavor as a blend of banana, pineapple, papaya, peach, and strawberry. Others describe it as tasting like commercial bubblegum [more my experience]. Similar in size to a grapefruit, it has large, glossy, dark seeds that are easily removed. When ripe, the skin is green and gives slightly to pressure, similar to the avocado.


I have tried it twice and it is pushed on me every time that I go to a Farmer's Market but I think that it might be an acquired taste.  I even tried the ice cream flavor - no go.

UPDATE:  Max, of penguin ID fame, recently sent me some additional information on the cherimoya that I thought was worth sharing:

Have you wondered why so many tropical fruits are popular worldwide (e.g. bananas, pineapples, and mangos), but the cherimoya isn't, even though it's popular throughout many parts of South America? Well, I have the answer to that question! I receive a magazine called Muse , and in the latest magazine, there is an article about cherimoya and why it isn't widespread.


Here is part of the article:
   "Part of the reason the cherimoya hasn't taken off in the supermarket is that the fruit is incredibly finicky. The trees flourish in the coastal mountains of the Andes in northern Peru and southern Ecuador. They like cool air, but not too cold, because a frost will kill the fruit. They like to be in the mountains — but not too far from the coast, no more than maybe 20 miles inland. And the fruits need to be shaded by the tree's branches.
   "The cherimoya tree is also quite choosy about its pollinators. The tree's flowers are both male and female, but the flowers first appear as females, with petals that have a narrow opening. A few hours later, the petals fully unfurl, and the flowers become male, producing pollen. This way, a flower can't pollinate itself — a precaution that keeps the species genetically healthy.
   "In the cherimoya's native home, tiny beetles collect the pollen from male flowers and then squeeze into the narrow opening of a nearby, almost-closed female flower to deposit that pollen. In other countries, there is no pollinator tiny enough to do the job. So cherimoya growers in California or Spain, for instance, must carefully pollinate the fruit trees by hand, using a small brush to pick up pollen from one flower and transfer it to another....
   "The third challenge of growing the cherimoya lies in picking and handling. It has to be picked at just the right time, when the fruit has barely begun to progress from hard and unripe to soft and mature. Because of its large, uneven shape, it has to be packed by hand. Once picked, it ripens quickly, in only about five days, so it won't last long in transit or on a shelf. It must be stored at a constant temperature of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Most grocery-store fruits and vegetables are shipped at colder temperatures, which would damage the cherimoya. Finally, the fruit's skin is thin and bruises very easily, turning a dark brownish-black.
   "Tropical bananas and mangos, on the other hand, can grow in a much wider variety of climates and don't need to be pollinated by hand. They're mostly the same size and shape, which makes for easy packing. They can be picked when they're harder and less mature, and will last for weeks during shipping at cold temperatures before they can then be ripened."


The article then goes on to say that many people are trying to solve the cherimoya's problems. There is a Peruvian farmer who is working on breeding a cherimoya with thicker, tougher skin. He also thinks that more people would be able to enjoy cherimoya if he could grow a smaller, regularly shaped fruit that was round like a grapefruit and didn't have many seeds. In Spain and California, scientists are trying to develop a seedless cherimoya. However, no one has solved the problem of hand-pollination yet, or the short time before it starts to spoil.