Posts: 1,516
Threads: 81
Joined: Dec 2005
We had dinner at Hilo Bay Cafe a few weeks ago to celebrate a friends birthday...they had hearts of palm on the salad and I am in love with it! I have picked some up a couple of times at the Hilo Market, but dang it's expensive...anyone know, is it a special kinda palm? How long they take to grow?
I spoke to a farmer guy in Honoka'a who grows it...they sell it to 4 star restaurants all over the mainland and even in other countries...they make bank on it since it's a real popular salad ingredient for the snooty salads...
Carrie
Posts: 581
Threads: 44
Joined: Feb 2006
That farmer guy is probably (Paradise Plants) Leslie Hill's partner Richard - I cannot remember his last name. I went to his place near Hilo several years ago when he was into Heliconias.
The most common palm for palm heart is peach palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth), since it naturally makes multiple trunks, so you do not kill the whole plant to harvest the heart from one stem. The standard form is very spiny, but there are spineless and reduced spine forms. The fruit is also edible and quite desirable. They may sell plants at Paradise Plants.
Check this .pdf:
www.ipgri.cgiar.org/publications/pdf/155.pdf
Allen
Baton Rouge, LA & HPP
Allen
Finally in HPP
Posts: 589
Threads: 20
Joined: May 2006
This is a popular food and crop in Costa Rica. From what I heard there and read in some books, harvesting the terminal leaf bud (where the heart is) kills the trunk. So, as Allen notes, you may want to find a multi-trunk species. The Permacopia Book II (containing non-invasive, useful species) lists over 50(!) species of palm, about 15 of which can provide hearts of palm, half of which will kill the tree upon harvesting. There are species that provide edible fruit, like Salak (lychee- and rambutan-like flesh). You can use the inflorescence of some for food, too. There was a palm fruit grown and sold in Costa Rica that looked superficially like oranges that I believe contained a lot of protein.
Permacopia Book III (containing "weeds"
lists another 16 species of palm, some of which have edible hearts.
Posts: 1,516
Threads: 81
Joined: Dec 2005
Wow Allen, that really is fascinating...so it's the Peach Palm. Very interesting about different diameters and their primary markets...I just love to cut 'em open lengthwise and shave the baby palm leaves so it falls onto your salad in very fine shreds...it's yummy.
Carrie
Posts: 1,727
Threads: 29
Joined: Feb 2006
I've heard it called "millionaire's salad" when it is made of coconut palm since you had to kill the tree to get it and only millionaires could afford to kill off their food supply.
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
