April 2, 2025 • 25 mins
Sometimes called the tropical potato, is breadfruit the greatest thing since sliced bread? What's mutiny got to do with it? In this classic episode, Anney and Lauren dig into the science and history of breadfruit.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm Lauren Boglah Bam, and today we have a classic
episode for you about breadfruit.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yes, h this is an oldie, A bit of an oldie.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, August of twenty eighteen. What yeah, yeah, And we
when we originally did this episode, neither of us, I
think had any particular experience with breadfruit. I still don't
think I've managed to have any. Have you any.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I feel like I have. I'm hesitating because I can't
remember it specifically, and I might be mixing it up
with jackfruit.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, I know that we've talked about, right, We've talked
about jackfruits.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
But yes, I feel like I've some at my local
grocery store that was kind of in the vegetarian section.
But I can't. I can't say for sure, Lauren, that
sounds more like jackfruit to me.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
But but yeah, so so more more homework, more homework
is needed, yes.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Oh so much delicious homework. Was there any particular reason
this was on your mind to bring back, Lauren?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Nope, I was just going through our archive and landed
on this one as an interesting one that it's with
some of these older episodes, it's it's so funny. Well,
I mean, okay, there's a lot of weird, weird, funny
parts about this job, Like it is truly a strange job.
But and if y'all don't know, like this is both
(01:52):
of our day job, like we like we each have
a four to oh one k about podcasting, which is
weird but great in many ways. But one of the
weird aspects is listening back to yourself from you know,
seven years prior and just sort of going like, oh,
(02:13):
like what a snapshot into my history. It's into our history,
into the show's history.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, it is. It's really fascinating. For some episodes, particularly,
I can be I can remember exactly where I was
like in my life when we recorded that, and it can't.
When you listen back. It can be very eye opening
in some ways and also kind of nostalgic in some ways,
(02:42):
like oh, you didn't things things were coming and you
didn't realize. But also, you know, we've learned a lot.
I've learned a lot, at least I continue to learn
a lot as we're sharing. So it is really interestingsolutely Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, like a like a grainy photograph, but we have
high quality audio of it. Yes, but okay, we're getting
away from the bread fruit. We should we should get
back to the bread fruit and let former Annie and
Lauren take it away.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Hello, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Annie Reach.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And I'm Lorn vocal Bomb, and today we're talking about
the bread fruit. Yeah, which is neither a bread nor No,
it is a fruit. Well, it's a bundle of flowers.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
It's a lot of things that you eat, a bundle
of flowers that you eat. I hope that clears everything up, everybody.
The end of the episode, I have never had bread fruit.
This is one that angry people will write about, like,
I can't believe you've never had it.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, I've never I've never had it either, So send
send away those angry emails.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Actually, please don't.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
We will have to rectify this at the first opportunity
because it sounds amazing and the story of it is fascinating.
Our sister podcast Stuff you missed in history class, did
an episode on it a long time ago in a
podcast booth far far away or in Buckhead? Yeah, way
back way back when Katie and Sarah I think are
(04:23):
the hosts.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Oh wow, really, yeah, that was a long podcast away,
and How.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Stuff Works even has a small article about it, which
it would not surprise us if ridiculous history eventually covered.
Oh yeah, because it's a little bit ridiculous, it is.
They should if they don't invite us to a cameo
on that. Oh, maybe I have some podcast beef. I
keep going like, hey, guys, why haven't you invited me
(04:50):
back yet? And they're like, oh, we thought you were busy.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Oh man, the judgmental look on your face. I can't
believe they haven't quilled under the pressure.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Anyway, Yes, the breadfruit? What is it? How it knew?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
How it goodness? Oh, that's a very big question, it is.
It's a very big question for a very big fruit.
The breadfruit is the fruit of a tropical flowering tree,
Artocarpus altilis, and it's related to the mulberry and jackfruit.
There are a couple other species under Artocarpus and a
couple hundred cultivars of bread fruit. But basically the trees
range from like twenty to eighty ish feet in height
(05:32):
that's about six to twenty four meters. They've got glossy
green leaves. The flowers are tiny, tiny, tiny and come
in these dense clusters attached to a spongy sort of
spear or rod or ball. These flower spears tend to
look a little bit like corn dogs, or like ears
of corn that have had all the kernels taken off,
or like weird, slightly oblong golf balls.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, I have somebody somewhere. It's one of those stories
that was told to me so long ago that I
can't even remember who told it to me or who
it was a bad but I know somewhere in my
past somebody thought, like a kid thought those little stalkspeer
things with the corn dog looking things on the end.
He thought they were corn dogs and like, oh no,
baked one up. He thought they grew in fields when
(06:13):
to eat them, and was in for a shock.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
That's that's amazing it is. Well, luckily they're non toxic.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
So yeah, and it's a memory that to vaguely recall
in the middle of a podcast that's delightful.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Both male and female flowers grow on these same trees,
and the female ones will develop as this cluster of
thousands of flowers into a single compound fruit, sort of
like the pineapple. If y'all remember that episode like. As
they grow, all the flowers fuse together and form the
part of the bread fruit that is eaten. The base
(06:50):
of each flower fuses together to form the rind, and
the resulting fruit looks like a like a spiny or
lumpy kind of yellow green ball or oval that can
range in size and shape from something like a baseball
to something like a human lung.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Ah. That's what I like to picture when I think
about fruit, human lung. Yeah. The breadfruit is also sometimes
known as the tropical potato and is honestly fascinating. One
of the interesting things about it is that you can
eat it at any point. When it's immature, it has
(07:26):
a flavor similar to artichoke carts. The immature fruit can
replace vegetables and a recipe, and are often pickled or boiled.
The mature, unripe fruit can replace potatoes and recipes steen
baked or boiled. The flavor at that point is something
between a potato and a plantain, but as it ripens,
the texture grows more and more custard like and can
be enjoyed raw. Kind of reminds me of Durian, which
(07:48):
we do have.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
We're just oh yeah, yeah, we're waiting for the right
time and place. We are outdoor place. Yes, yeah, it
can be enjoyed raw or cooked once it's ripe. It
is also used in It's frequently eaten rob but it's
also used in bake goods and other desserts. And yes,
I have heard it described as like a Durian and texture,
but not so garlic funky.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Not so Durian into flavor.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, it's sort of just nice and sweet, maybe a
little bit tart, like maybe a little bit of pineapple
kind of flavor in there somewhere. M m. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Once ripe, it does rot fairly quickly, and researchers are
looking in two ways to extend its shelf life by
drying and shredding it.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Some varieties have seeds that are edible and apparently similar
in flavor and texture to chestnuts, that can be roasted
or boiled or ground to make a sort of meal.
H And the male flowers themselves as corn dog things,
are sometimes candied and eaten.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Those corn dog things, you know, those things.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Those things.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Despite sharing the texture of a potato and having a
high carb count, the breadfruit itself is gluten free, just.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
About all fruit, vegetables and grains except for wheat, barley,
and rye, and some specific things like glutinous rice are
gluten free, and.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Boy howdy they nutritious, calcium, copper, fibery stuff, iron, magnesium, nyasin,
omega three, omega six, phosphorus, potassium, thiamine, vitamins A and C.
A mere half cup will give you five to ten
percent of your recommended daily allowance of protein and twenty
five percent of your RDA of fiber, and Hawaii's Breadfruit
(09:31):
Institute of the National Tropical Botanical Garden list multitudes of
ways to eat breadfruit in cashles in that type of potato, salad, curries, pancakes, breads, fritters, chowders, dips,
a veggie burger, patai, chips, nachos, alongside corn beef in
beverages in flunds. You can also put it through a
(09:51):
food processor to make a dough substitute.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Ah Yeah. Dried and ground breadfruit flour can be used
to make everything from like tortillas to bread pet trees,
and it of course can also be fermented into alcoholic
beverages of various kinds.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Of course, and if you aren't impressed already, the breadfruit
has other uses. The male breadfruit and leaves are a
great insect repellent when burned. The sap is great for
calking and as a chewing gum. I'm very intrigued by that.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Oh yeah, it's like a latex kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Oh. The bark can be used as a fabric, and
fallen fruits and leaves can be used in animal feed.
So lots of things, lots of things going for the
bread fruit.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
If we look at some numbers, a bread fruit tree
can produce an annual fifty to one and fifty fruits,
which is one of the highest yielding crops in existence.
The fruit itself can weigh up to twelve pounds about
five and a half kilograms, while the tree can reach
eighty five feet or twenty six meters.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Or even bigger. I've read all kinds of reports about then.
They can last a long time and get pretty big,
and they are self propagating. You don't need seeds in
order to grow new breadfruit. New saplings grow up from
shoots off of established trees. It will take a few
years for a new tree to mature, but once it does,
it will fruit four dozens or even hundreds of years yep.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
And breadfruit is grown in over ninety different countries and
in the Pacific Islands, more breadfruit or grown per hector
than rice, wheat and corn.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Dang, dang.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Indeed, got so excited, I gesticulated and hit the mic stand.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It's that level of excitement in here, folks, it really is.
We're going to get into some of the history of
the breadfruit, including a famous mutiny.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, but first.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
We're going to get into a quick break for a
word from our.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you.
Breadfruit originated about three thousand years ago in the area
(12:05):
that is now New Guinea. In three hundred CE, breadfruit,
along with coconuts, sweet ptatoes, ginger and bananas, arrived to
Hawaii via Polynesia as a canoe fruit. Ancient Hawaiians believed
the breadfruit to be sacred. They called it ulu. They
planted so many breadfruit trees that some grobes could feed
seventy five thousand people. The plant provided raw materials like wood, obviously,
(12:30):
but also was used for crafts and medicine, and breadfruit
remains a culturally significant staple food in the South Pacific.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Oh yeah, yeah, uru are still Hawaiian terms for the
fruit yesterday.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
And the French Polynesians have a legend about a famine
that occurred. A family of six was living in a
cave and were desperately hungry enough so they were eating ferns.
The father, miserable at watching his family wasting away, buried
himself in the cave, promising his wife he'd transform into
a tree bearing fruit to feed his family. Sure enough,
(13:06):
when his wife woke up the next morning, there was
a breadfruit tree, an ur tree. That area is now
sometimes referred to as tua Uru, the Valley of the Breadfruit.
Some locals give another name, the Tree of Life. It
spread throughout the Pacific from New Guinea, and when the
Europeans discovered it in the fifteen hundreds, they were amazed
(13:27):
at the bread like texture and smell of versted breadfruit,
hence the name.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Pretty Much all of the European languages use a word
for bread in their name for breadfruit.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
So about that mutiny, Yeah, Well, first, before we get there,
along comes Captain James Cook. In seventeen ninety six, After
making a landfall into Heiti, Cook and his companion Sir
Joseph Banks stumbled upon breadfruit and realized that it could
be a useful crop in places with similar tropical climates
aka colonies that were producing sugarcane. Yeah. Banks thought the
(14:04):
prolific trees would be an excellent and inexpensive source of
food for the enslaved peoples living in the Caribbean colonies yeah,
that were making this whole sugar cacane thing happen. So
convinced was Banks of the value of his idea that
he presented it to King George the Third saying quote
regarding food, if a man planted ten bread fruit trees
in his life, he would completely fulfill his duty to
(14:26):
his own as well as future generations. He requested a
special expedition with the sole purpose of retrieving bread fruit
trees and replanting them in the Caribbean end of noe.
Banks was the president of the Royal Society at the
time and a patron of Q Gardens.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
He's sometimes credited with being one of the architects of globalization.
So big, big dude, yeah, big deal, big historical fellow.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
His request was granted.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Hazzah, perhaps not not Hazza.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Not Tissa. William Bly was made Captain of the HMS
bounty in seventeen eighty seven and his mission from the
Royal Crown to transport one thousand to Heitian breadfruit trees
to the Caribbean with the intention of using the highly
nutritious and energy boosting food to feed British slaves. But
all was not well on the bounty. One journal described
(15:24):
Bly as brutal. It took ten months for the mostly
healthy crew to arrive to Tahiti, behind schedule enough that
they missed their window for transplanting the trees, so they
had to hang around for another five months. A lot
of the crew, of course, found themselves Tahitian mistresses. When
the time came to leave. A lot of the crew
(15:45):
wasn't on board, but Bly made them get on board,
literally unaware or uncaring of the resentment of his crew.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And some stories say that part of the problem was
that Bly was rationing out a short supply of water
on board and like favoring the trees over the crewmen,
which led to not less resentment.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Oh sure, I can imagine. Yeah, so the crew mutinied.
Several men armed with bannets broke into blies cabin one night,
binding his hands behind his back and bringing him up
to the deck wearing only a shirt. Well, I demanded
to know the reason behind the mutiny, and the only
response he got was I have been in hell for
the last fortnight, sir, in hell. Oh okay, of note
(16:31):
that Marlon Brando played that guy in the nineteen sixty
two movie about this, and I really missed an opportunity
to do a Marlon Brando accent. That is for the
best test for everything. I would have had fun, but
no one else would have had fun. Oh yeah, Well,
I could admit what accents I can do and can't do,
and this is really not an accent, it's an impersonation.
(16:52):
But either way it would have been a failure for
all to hear.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
You can check out the film Mutiny on the Bound.
You can if you want to hear it for yourself,
not through the filter of Annie.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yes, you absolutely can do that. Bly and eighteen others
were forced overboard in a long boat. The mutineers sent
them on their way with some pork biscuits, water, and
six quarts of rum. All thousand trees went into the
water twist. Oh yeah, I guess they were pretty mad
about that water rationing thing.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
If it's true, with like screw these trees were going
back to Tahiti.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Take that trees. And they did, and they did. But
Bly and his mini crew were wiy and in what
is called one of the greatest feats of seamanship of
all time, they managed to navigate their ship through mostly
uncharted water without a map or a compass to timor
making an early stop at one of the friendly islands,
(17:48):
that's what they were called. Not that the islands like
were friendly, friendly because they weren't. No, because the indigenous
peoples chased them away with rocks and killed one man.
The crew decided to make minimal stops after that, and
food was strictly rationed. Two ounces of biscuit in a
little water a day, oh now and then they got
some pork every now and then they got some room.
(18:08):
The journey took forty seven days heavy storms, and they
covered six seven hundred and one kilometers or four one
hundred and sixty four miles. They stopped at Kopang, starving,
sleep deprived, and that's where three of the crew died
of fever. Oh like, not on the whole journey. They
made it there, yeah, all. From there they made their
(18:30):
way back to Britain. And commissioned a second trip, this
time on the HMS Providence. No mutinies were had, and
five years after his first mission failed, fly succeeded, or
mostly many of the two thousand bread fruit trees on
the ship died due to flies, cold, or the quote
unwholesomeness of sea air. Six hundred and seventy eight bread
(18:55):
fruit trees arrived in the West Indies, and a few
of those trees, first planted two hundred years ago in Jamaica,
bear fruit to this day. Oh yeah. The locals did
resist it at first, though, eating it only when other
options were limited. It took forty years for them to
develop a taste for the breadfruit.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, the population of Jamaica fed it to pigs at first.
To be fair, the mature but unripe fruit is kind
of bland and can be described as like mealy, and
it can go pretty mushy if you overcook it. Once
you figure out how to deal with it. Though apparently
it's great, it sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
These days, scientists think the breadfruit could be useful in
the fight against hunger. After all, there is a tradition
in parts of Polynesia to plant a breadfruit tree when
a child is born to guarantee that they won't go hungry.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Since the nineteen eighties, a researcher out of Hawaii National
Tropical Botanical Garden in DBG, Diane Ragone, followed the DNA
bread combs of breadfruit all the way back to parasite breadfruit.
I mean the first they call it eve up bread
for Eve. I'm going to try to get as many
(20:06):
parasite eve references in this show as I can.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I so far you are succeeding. Who knew you're really
doing it?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Thank you, Laura, You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
In two thousand and three, Ragon helped found the Breadfruit
Institute at the National Tropical Botanical Garden and yeah, the
institute is partnered with the charity Alliance to End Hunger
to bring the breadfruit to areas in need.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Scientists are also working to find the species that contains
the most protein and also the ones that are most
accepting assault as sea levels rise.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Ragon and her fellow researchers say that this one cultivar
from Samoa surpasses soybeans in terms of protein content and quality.
And yeah, they're hoping that this kind of research could
help places like Hawaii, that currently import over half of
their food become more self sustainable.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
In two thousand and nine, Josh Schneider launched an initiative
to put breadfruit trees all over the world called Global Breadfruit.
The group put fourteen thousand trees in ten different countries.
In twenty sixteen, a Costa Rican native, Diana Shavez, took
some of the bread fruit from the trees the organization
planted and started making chips out of the fruit and
putting them in grocery stores.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, like, like, fried chips are one of the most
popular ways to eat. I mean, once you fry anything,
it's pretty great. But apparently they're super delicious.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Apparently she gets a lot of requests for them now, Yeah,
at first she had trouble selling them, and now people
are like, where are the chips?
Speaker 2 (21:28):
More breadfroat chips?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I need them.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
In twenty ten, the Breadfruit Institute partnered with the Global
Hunger Initiative, which distributed ninety thousand trees to forty countries
over the next five years, and in twenty sixteen, the
FDA ruled bread fruit flour safe for consumption here in
the United States, so you might see it out there
and you're a gluten free baking isisle.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
You just might. So it's had a really fascinating just
story behind the fruit. Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's a little bit more hopeful than a lot of
the tropical fruits that we discuss on this show.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
This is true.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah, And we've got a little bit more left in
this episode today, but first we've got one more quick
break for a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
And that brings us to the end of this classic episode.
As always, we hope that you enjoyed this rerun as
much as we enjoyed bringing it back to you.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Absolutely, and so you know, if you're confused about why
we're here and not former Annie and Lauren, it's because, Bye,
we have a little bit more for you. In this case,
I meant listener mail, which we don't run in classics.
So I did want to add here that we touch
on breadfruit a couple of times and episodes that have
(23:01):
come out since this one. We didn't really focus on
it in any of our Oahu episodes, though it is
mentioned as one of the you know canoe crops in
the intro episode that came over with ancient ancestors. We
do also mention it in our episode on Mafungo as
a possible addition to the dish. But you know, we
could really, like, like thinking about the history section in
(23:23):
this one, we could really do whole episodes on the
history of breadfruit in different places. You know, Like the
stories from Hawaii and the Caribbean just for example, are
both like really complex and sad and hopeful because from
totally opposite angles. They're about like the horrors of colonization
(23:46):
and the destruction of traditional food ways and also the
resilience of people and of this particular plant too in
feeding and thus caring for communities.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah, so many of these episodes we could do like
an eight part series, oh oh easy.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah, at least at least I genuinely think that Breadfruit
should have like a docudrama mini series. I mean, like
not only because of the whole mutiny aspect, but right
like there's just so much about it that is fascinating
and so yeah, so I think I totally think we
should return to this one.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Yeah, I agree, And listeners, if you have any particular
aspects you would like us to return to any recipes
as always, because clearly it sounds like we fell down
on trying to get some breadfruit. Please let us know.
You can email us at Hello at saberpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Blue Sky and Instagram at saber pod and we do
hope to hear from you is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots of more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm Lauren Boglah Bam, and today we have a classic
episode for you about breadfruit.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yes, h this is an oldie, A bit of an oldie.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, August of twenty eighteen. What yeah, yeah, And we
when we originally did this episode, neither of us, I
think had any particular experience with breadfruit. I still don't
think I've managed to have any. Have you any.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I feel like I have. I'm hesitating because I can't
remember it specifically, and I might be mixing it up
with jackfruit.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, I know that we've talked about, right, We've talked
about jackfruits.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
But yes, I feel like I've some at my local
grocery store that was kind of in the vegetarian section.
But I can't. I can't say for sure, Lauren, that
sounds more like jackfruit to me.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
But but yeah, so so more more homework, more homework
is needed, yes.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Oh so much delicious homework. Was there any particular reason
this was on your mind to bring back, Lauren?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Nope, I was just going through our archive and landed
on this one as an interesting one that it's with
some of these older episodes, it's it's so funny. Well,
I mean, okay, there's a lot of weird, weird, funny
parts about this job, Like it is truly a strange job.
But and if y'all don't know, like this is both
(01:52):
of our day job, like we like we each have
a four to oh one k about podcasting, which is
weird but great in many ways. But one of the
weird aspects is listening back to yourself from you know,
seven years prior and just sort of going like, oh,
(02:13):
like what a snapshot into my history. It's into our history,
into the show's history.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, it is. It's really fascinating. For some episodes, particularly,
I can be I can remember exactly where I was
like in my life when we recorded that, and it can't.
When you listen back. It can be very eye opening
in some ways and also kind of nostalgic in some ways,
(02:42):
like oh, you didn't things things were coming and you
didn't realize. But also, you know, we've learned a lot.
I've learned a lot, at least I continue to learn
a lot as we're sharing. So it is really interestingsolutely Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, like a like a grainy photograph, but we have
high quality audio of it. Yes, but okay, we're getting
away from the bread fruit. We should we should get
back to the bread fruit and let former Annie and
Lauren take it away.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Hello, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Annie Reach.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And I'm Lorn vocal Bomb, and today we're talking about
the bread fruit. Yeah, which is neither a bread nor No,
it is a fruit. Well, it's a bundle of flowers.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
It's a lot of things that you eat, a bundle
of flowers that you eat. I hope that clears everything up, everybody.
The end of the episode, I have never had bread fruit.
This is one that angry people will write about, like,
I can't believe you've never had it.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, I've never I've never had it either, So send
send away those angry emails.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Actually, please don't.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
We will have to rectify this at the first opportunity
because it sounds amazing and the story of it is fascinating.
Our sister podcast Stuff you missed in history class, did
an episode on it a long time ago in a
podcast booth far far away or in Buckhead? Yeah, way
back way back when Katie and Sarah I think are
(04:23):
the hosts.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Oh wow, really, yeah, that was a long podcast away,
and How.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Stuff Works even has a small article about it, which
it would not surprise us if ridiculous history eventually covered.
Oh yeah, because it's a little bit ridiculous, it is.
They should if they don't invite us to a cameo
on that. Oh, maybe I have some podcast beef. I
keep going like, hey, guys, why haven't you invited me
(04:50):
back yet? And they're like, oh, we thought you were busy.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Oh man, the judgmental look on your face. I can't
believe they haven't quilled under the pressure.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Anyway, Yes, the breadfruit? What is it? How it knew?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
How it goodness? Oh, that's a very big question, it is.
It's a very big question for a very big fruit.
The breadfruit is the fruit of a tropical flowering tree,
Artocarpus altilis, and it's related to the mulberry and jackfruit.
There are a couple other species under Artocarpus and a
couple hundred cultivars of bread fruit. But basically the trees
range from like twenty to eighty ish feet in height
(05:32):
that's about six to twenty four meters. They've got glossy
green leaves. The flowers are tiny, tiny, tiny and come
in these dense clusters attached to a spongy sort of
spear or rod or ball. These flower spears tend to
look a little bit like corn dogs, or like ears
of corn that have had all the kernels taken off,
or like weird, slightly oblong golf balls.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, I have somebody somewhere. It's one of those stories
that was told to me so long ago that I
can't even remember who told it to me or who
it was a bad but I know somewhere in my
past somebody thought, like a kid thought those little stalkspeer
things with the corn dog looking things on the end.
He thought they were corn dogs and like, oh no,
baked one up. He thought they grew in fields when
(06:13):
to eat them, and was in for a shock.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
That's that's amazing it is. Well, luckily they're non toxic.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
So yeah, and it's a memory that to vaguely recall
in the middle of a podcast that's delightful.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Both male and female flowers grow on these same trees,
and the female ones will develop as this cluster of
thousands of flowers into a single compound fruit, sort of
like the pineapple. If y'all remember that episode like. As
they grow, all the flowers fuse together and form the
part of the bread fruit that is eaten. The base
(06:50):
of each flower fuses together to form the rind, and
the resulting fruit looks like a like a spiny or
lumpy kind of yellow green ball or oval that can
range in size and shape from something like a baseball
to something like a human lung.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Ah. That's what I like to picture when I think
about fruit, human lung. Yeah. The breadfruit is also sometimes
known as the tropical potato and is honestly fascinating. One
of the interesting things about it is that you can
eat it at any point. When it's immature, it has
(07:26):
a flavor similar to artichoke carts. The immature fruit can
replace vegetables and a recipe, and are often pickled or boiled.
The mature, unripe fruit can replace potatoes and recipes steen
baked or boiled. The flavor at that point is something
between a potato and a plantain, but as it ripens,
the texture grows more and more custard like and can
be enjoyed raw. Kind of reminds me of Durian, which
(07:48):
we do have.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
We're just oh yeah, yeah, we're waiting for the right
time and place. We are outdoor place. Yes, yeah, it
can be enjoyed raw or cooked once it's ripe. It
is also used in It's frequently eaten rob but it's
also used in bake goods and other desserts. And yes,
I have heard it described as like a Durian and texture,
but not so garlic funky.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Not so Durian into flavor.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, it's sort of just nice and sweet, maybe a
little bit tart, like maybe a little bit of pineapple
kind of flavor in there somewhere. M m. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Once ripe, it does rot fairly quickly, and researchers are
looking in two ways to extend its shelf life by
drying and shredding it.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Some varieties have seeds that are edible and apparently similar
in flavor and texture to chestnuts, that can be roasted
or boiled or ground to make a sort of meal.
H And the male flowers themselves as corn dog things,
are sometimes candied and eaten.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Those corn dog things, you know, those things.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Those things.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Despite sharing the texture of a potato and having a
high carb count, the breadfruit itself is gluten free, just.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
About all fruit, vegetables and grains except for wheat, barley,
and rye, and some specific things like glutinous rice are
gluten free, and.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Boy howdy they nutritious, calcium, copper, fibery stuff, iron, magnesium, nyasin,
omega three, omega six, phosphorus, potassium, thiamine, vitamins A and C.
A mere half cup will give you five to ten
percent of your recommended daily allowance of protein and twenty
five percent of your RDA of fiber, and Hawaii's Breadfruit
(09:31):
Institute of the National Tropical Botanical Garden list multitudes of
ways to eat breadfruit in cashles in that type of potato, salad, curries, pancakes, breads, fritters, chowders, dips,
a veggie burger, patai, chips, nachos, alongside corn beef in
beverages in flunds. You can also put it through a
(09:51):
food processor to make a dough substitute.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Ah Yeah. Dried and ground breadfruit flour can be used
to make everything from like tortillas to bread pet trees,
and it of course can also be fermented into alcoholic
beverages of various kinds.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Of course, and if you aren't impressed already, the breadfruit
has other uses. The male breadfruit and leaves are a
great insect repellent when burned. The sap is great for
calking and as a chewing gum. I'm very intrigued by that.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Oh yeah, it's like a latex kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Oh. The bark can be used as a fabric, and
fallen fruits and leaves can be used in animal feed.
So lots of things, lots of things going for the
bread fruit.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
If we look at some numbers, a bread fruit tree
can produce an annual fifty to one and fifty fruits,
which is one of the highest yielding crops in existence.
The fruit itself can weigh up to twelve pounds about
five and a half kilograms, while the tree can reach
eighty five feet or twenty six meters.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Or even bigger. I've read all kinds of reports about then.
They can last a long time and get pretty big,
and they are self propagating. You don't need seeds in
order to grow new breadfruit. New saplings grow up from
shoots off of established trees. It will take a few
years for a new tree to mature, but once it does,
it will fruit four dozens or even hundreds of years yep.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
And breadfruit is grown in over ninety different countries and
in the Pacific Islands, more breadfruit or grown per hector
than rice, wheat and corn.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Dang, dang.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Indeed, got so excited, I gesticulated and hit the mic stand.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It's that level of excitement in here, folks, it really is.
We're going to get into some of the history of
the breadfruit, including a famous mutiny.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, but first.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
We're going to get into a quick break for a
word from our.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you.
Breadfruit originated about three thousand years ago in the area
(12:05):
that is now New Guinea. In three hundred CE, breadfruit,
along with coconuts, sweet ptatoes, ginger and bananas, arrived to
Hawaii via Polynesia as a canoe fruit. Ancient Hawaiians believed
the breadfruit to be sacred. They called it ulu. They
planted so many breadfruit trees that some grobes could feed
seventy five thousand people. The plant provided raw materials like wood, obviously,
(12:30):
but also was used for crafts and medicine, and breadfruit
remains a culturally significant staple food in the South Pacific.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Oh yeah, yeah, uru are still Hawaiian terms for the
fruit yesterday.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
And the French Polynesians have a legend about a famine
that occurred. A family of six was living in a
cave and were desperately hungry enough so they were eating ferns.
The father, miserable at watching his family wasting away, buried
himself in the cave, promising his wife he'd transform into
a tree bearing fruit to feed his family. Sure enough,
(13:06):
when his wife woke up the next morning, there was
a breadfruit tree, an ur tree. That area is now
sometimes referred to as tua Uru, the Valley of the Breadfruit.
Some locals give another name, the Tree of Life. It
spread throughout the Pacific from New Guinea, and when the
Europeans discovered it in the fifteen hundreds, they were amazed
(13:27):
at the bread like texture and smell of versted breadfruit,
hence the name.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Pretty Much all of the European languages use a word
for bread in their name for breadfruit.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
So about that mutiny, Yeah, Well, first, before we get there,
along comes Captain James Cook. In seventeen ninety six, After
making a landfall into Heiti, Cook and his companion Sir
Joseph Banks stumbled upon breadfruit and realized that it could
be a useful crop in places with similar tropical climates
aka colonies that were producing sugarcane. Yeah. Banks thought the
(14:04):
prolific trees would be an excellent and inexpensive source of
food for the enslaved peoples living in the Caribbean colonies yeah,
that were making this whole sugar cacane thing happen. So
convinced was Banks of the value of his idea that
he presented it to King George the Third saying quote
regarding food, if a man planted ten bread fruit trees
in his life, he would completely fulfill his duty to
(14:26):
his own as well as future generations. He requested a
special expedition with the sole purpose of retrieving bread fruit
trees and replanting them in the Caribbean end of noe.
Banks was the president of the Royal Society at the
time and a patron of Q Gardens.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
He's sometimes credited with being one of the architects of globalization.
So big, big dude, yeah, big deal, big historical fellow.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
His request was granted.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Hazzah, perhaps not not Hazza.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Not Tissa. William Bly was made Captain of the HMS
bounty in seventeen eighty seven and his mission from the
Royal Crown to transport one thousand to Heitian breadfruit trees
to the Caribbean with the intention of using the highly
nutritious and energy boosting food to feed British slaves. But
all was not well on the bounty. One journal described
(15:24):
Bly as brutal. It took ten months for the mostly
healthy crew to arrive to Tahiti, behind schedule enough that
they missed their window for transplanting the trees, so they
had to hang around for another five months. A lot
of the crew, of course, found themselves Tahitian mistresses. When
the time came to leave. A lot of the crew
(15:45):
wasn't on board, but Bly made them get on board,
literally unaware or uncaring of the resentment of his crew.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And some stories say that part of the problem was
that Bly was rationing out a short supply of water
on board and like favoring the trees over the crewmen,
which led to not less resentment.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Oh sure, I can imagine. Yeah, so the crew mutinied.
Several men armed with bannets broke into blies cabin one night,
binding his hands behind his back and bringing him up
to the deck wearing only a shirt. Well, I demanded
to know the reason behind the mutiny, and the only
response he got was I have been in hell for
the last fortnight, sir, in hell. Oh okay, of note
(16:31):
that Marlon Brando played that guy in the nineteen sixty
two movie about this, and I really missed an opportunity
to do a Marlon Brando accent. That is for the
best test for everything. I would have had fun, but
no one else would have had fun. Oh yeah, Well,
I could admit what accents I can do and can't do,
and this is really not an accent, it's an impersonation.
(16:52):
But either way it would have been a failure for
all to hear.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
You can check out the film Mutiny on the Bound.
You can if you want to hear it for yourself,
not through the filter of Annie.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yes, you absolutely can do that. Bly and eighteen others
were forced overboard in a long boat. The mutineers sent
them on their way with some pork biscuits, water, and
six quarts of rum. All thousand trees went into the
water twist. Oh yeah, I guess they were pretty mad
about that water rationing thing.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
If it's true, with like screw these trees were going
back to Tahiti.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Take that trees. And they did, and they did. But
Bly and his mini crew were wiy and in what
is called one of the greatest feats of seamanship of
all time, they managed to navigate their ship through mostly
uncharted water without a map or a compass to timor
making an early stop at one of the friendly islands,
(17:48):
that's what they were called. Not that the islands like
were friendly, friendly because they weren't. No, because the indigenous
peoples chased them away with rocks and killed one man.
The crew decided to make minimal stops after that, and
food was strictly rationed. Two ounces of biscuit in a
little water a day, oh now and then they got
some pork every now and then they got some room.
(18:08):
The journey took forty seven days heavy storms, and they
covered six seven hundred and one kilometers or four one
hundred and sixty four miles. They stopped at Kopang, starving,
sleep deprived, and that's where three of the crew died
of fever. Oh like, not on the whole journey. They
made it there, yeah, all. From there they made their
(18:30):
way back to Britain. And commissioned a second trip, this
time on the HMS Providence. No mutinies were had, and
five years after his first mission failed, fly succeeded, or
mostly many of the two thousand bread fruit trees on
the ship died due to flies, cold, or the quote
unwholesomeness of sea air. Six hundred and seventy eight bread
(18:55):
fruit trees arrived in the West Indies, and a few
of those trees, first planted two hundred years ago in Jamaica,
bear fruit to this day. Oh yeah. The locals did
resist it at first, though, eating it only when other
options were limited. It took forty years for them to
develop a taste for the breadfruit.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, the population of Jamaica fed it to pigs at first.
To be fair, the mature but unripe fruit is kind
of bland and can be described as like mealy, and
it can go pretty mushy if you overcook it. Once
you figure out how to deal with it. Though apparently
it's great, it sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
These days, scientists think the breadfruit could be useful in
the fight against hunger. After all, there is a tradition
in parts of Polynesia to plant a breadfruit tree when
a child is born to guarantee that they won't go hungry.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Since the nineteen eighties, a researcher out of Hawaii National
Tropical Botanical Garden in DBG, Diane Ragone, followed the DNA
bread combs of breadfruit all the way back to parasite breadfruit.
I mean the first they call it eve up bread
for Eve. I'm going to try to get as many
(20:06):
parasite eve references in this show as I can.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I so far you are succeeding. Who knew you're really
doing it?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Thank you, Laura, You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
In two thousand and three, Ragon helped found the Breadfruit
Institute at the National Tropical Botanical Garden and yeah, the
institute is partnered with the charity Alliance to End Hunger
to bring the breadfruit to areas in need.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Scientists are also working to find the species that contains
the most protein and also the ones that are most
accepting assault as sea levels rise.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Ragon and her fellow researchers say that this one cultivar
from Samoa surpasses soybeans in terms of protein content and quality.
And yeah, they're hoping that this kind of research could
help places like Hawaii, that currently import over half of
their food become more self sustainable.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
In two thousand and nine, Josh Schneider launched an initiative
to put breadfruit trees all over the world called Global Breadfruit.
The group put fourteen thousand trees in ten different countries.
In twenty sixteen, a Costa Rican native, Diana Shavez, took
some of the bread fruit from the trees the organization
planted and started making chips out of the fruit and
putting them in grocery stores.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, like, like, fried chips are one of the most
popular ways to eat. I mean, once you fry anything,
it's pretty great. But apparently they're super delicious.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Apparently she gets a lot of requests for them now, Yeah,
at first she had trouble selling them, and now people
are like, where are the chips?
Speaker 2 (21:28):
More breadfroat chips?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I need them.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
In twenty ten, the Breadfruit Institute partnered with the Global
Hunger Initiative, which distributed ninety thousand trees to forty countries
over the next five years, and in twenty sixteen, the
FDA ruled bread fruit flour safe for consumption here in
the United States, so you might see it out there
and you're a gluten free baking isisle.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
You just might. So it's had a really fascinating just
story behind the fruit. Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's a little bit more hopeful than a lot of
the tropical fruits that we discuss on this show.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
This is true.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah, And we've got a little bit more left in
this episode today, but first we've got one more quick
break for a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
And that brings us to the end of this classic episode.
As always, we hope that you enjoyed this rerun as
much as we enjoyed bringing it back to you.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Absolutely, and so you know, if you're confused about why
we're here and not former Annie and Lauren, it's because, Bye,
we have a little bit more for you. In this case,
I meant listener mail, which we don't run in classics.
So I did want to add here that we touch
on breadfruit a couple of times and episodes that have
(23:01):
come out since this one. We didn't really focus on
it in any of our Oahu episodes, though it is
mentioned as one of the you know canoe crops in
the intro episode that came over with ancient ancestors. We
do also mention it in our episode on Mafungo as
a possible addition to the dish. But you know, we
could really, like, like thinking about the history section in
(23:23):
this one, we could really do whole episodes on the
history of breadfruit in different places. You know, Like the
stories from Hawaii and the Caribbean just for example, are
both like really complex and sad and hopeful because from
totally opposite angles. They're about like the horrors of colonization
(23:46):
and the destruction of traditional food ways and also the
resilience of people and of this particular plant too in
feeding and thus caring for communities.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah, so many of these episodes we could do like
an eight part series, oh oh easy.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah, at least at least I genuinely think that Breadfruit
should have like a docudrama mini series. I mean, like
not only because of the whole mutiny aspect, but right
like there's just so much about it that is fascinating
and so yeah, so I think I totally think we
should return to this one.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Yeah, I agree, And listeners, if you have any particular
aspects you would like us to return to any recipes
as always, because clearly it sounds like we fell down
on trying to get some breadfruit. Please let us know.
You can email us at Hello at saberpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Blue Sky and Instagram at saber pod and we do
hope to hear from you is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots of more good things are coming your way.
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Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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