I am sure I have not seen or tasted many local fruits and vegetables. However, it isnâ€™t often that I am almost completely stumped by a bunch of fruit when it is presented to me under such casual circumstances. Back at the farm in Bicol, the locals and farmhands were probably a bit amused that I would fawn over a pili tree, gush over freshly scooped coconut meat and stare up in wonder whenever I saw a familiar tree bearing fruit. They were perplexed why I would photograph plants, fish, animals and fruit but not people and probably figured out what would make me happyâ€¦find this nutcase an odd fruit, they thought, and better yet if it is still attached to its branchesâ€¦ and were they on the money or what?! The second day there, I was given this bunch of purple fruit still on the branch (they noticed my pili photo session) and it was explained that it was locally called igot. I tasted the fruit which was a bit like duhat or java plum but unique enough that perhaps it wasnâ€™t just a mutated cousinâ€¦ I got one that was a bit unripe but the riper blacker ones were rather sweet. They eat them like duhat, with salt and sometimes sugar mixed in. I took a photo, tasted a few more and made a note to look it up when I got back home.
I searched my Philippine fruit books, my Elizabeth Schneider and Alan Davidson reference materials, other international fruit books and the internet until I finally found an interesting reference here in a report by the Philippine Department of Agriculture to the FAO (scroll to page 26 of 132 pages!) and I will quote their description of this interesting fruit instead of paraphrasingâ€¦
â€œ Lipote (Syzygium curranii) â€“ Also called bahag, baligang or igot. This fruit species is INDIGENOUS to the Philippines. The tree is medium-sized, 9 meters or more high. The fruits are borne in compact clusters, small up to 20mm in diameter, round, dark red to black, rather dry but of pleasant acid flacor. The fruit is used in the making of preserces, wine, pickle, beverages and jelly. It is a good source of protein.â€
And re-checking my Fruits of the Philippines by Doreen Fernandez, I went to a section in the back listing â€œRare and Vanishing Fruit Trees of the Philippinesâ€ compiled by Domingo A. Madulid and they list Lipote or Igot as being one of the native trees that are vulnerable and potentially endangered. Enjoy the photo, there arenâ€™t too many of this indigenous fruit on the web, as far as I can tellâ€¦