Warmest greeting, y'all. It's a new week and I know you have great wishes for it so my humble wish is for it to be pleasant with you all.
It is the planting season here and during this time, nature blesses us with many fruits, from mangoes to ugiri (African Bush mango), ube (local pear) and then uvune (bush cherry). Oh I love uvune, hehehe.
The #proofofbrainphotocontest for this week is all about fruits and I've chosen to share this unique but local fruit called Uvune or *bush cherry" in English.
Uvune (Bush Cherry), is botanically called Maesobotrya Barteri or Red Maeso. This unfamiliar specie in the cherry fruit family grows in the wild - bush, farmlands and is commonly found in the South Eastern part of Nigeria, and some parts in Sierra Leone and Cote D'Ivoire. In Nigeria, it has other names like ubene, ubene, ufene, or uvere depending on the locality and dialects.
Uvune is a small fruit tree with a round shaped fruit just about the size of a cherry. When unripe, the color is green but varies in color from dark red to yellow, white and dark purple when ripe. It is aromatic in nature, has a sweet, tangy flavor when ripe and tart flavor when not fully ripe so it's best to allow it ripen very well before plucking. Just like the cherry, it has a seed coated by the juicy flesh, which can be swallowed if you so desire.
As mentioned earlier, uvune is a seasonal plant, usually grows during the planting season, and bears fruit from March, April through June. So if you happen to visit the bush or uncultivated farmlands in the South Eastern part of Nigeria or the other aforementioned countries, you may be lucky to find one or two trees ripe and waiting to be plucked, hehehe.
I love this fruit and won't fail to pluck as much as I can whenever we go to the farm. It's actually one of the reasons I like going to the farm as we had some trees growing in our farm lands then. It's always fun to lick it while coming back from the farm, so refreshing 😅.
Even when we travel to the village for the Easter break, I and my cousins will go uvune hunting in the bush, lol. While coming back to our base after the break, I'll pluck lots of it to share with my neighborhood friends. They always look forward to it and would even tell me not to forget to bring some back for them. The popular color we have here is the white one, and that's my favorite because it tastes sweeter.
One notable thing about this fruit is that after licking, it leaves a blue color on your lips and darker if it's the color ones.
Although this fruit tree grows in the wild, they can also be grown in the garden, or used as fencing around the house, as they require minimal tending and can thrive in any soil type. But be sure to always have birds, squirrels, butterfly and some visit around there as it attracts them.
This particular one in the image is planted around the house . I visited my sister's house over the weekend and saw them already ripe. I didn't even wait to lick them to my heart fill, hehehe.
I also took some home and kept in the refrigerator till the next day. Despite that the fruits are easily perishable, they can last a day or two if well preserved.
If you are looking for the best of chewing sticks, uvune plant is one of it. I just love the taste it gives especially if it's fresh. I brought some sticks home and I'm drying them for future use, hehehe. 0
Just like any other fruit, uvune can be used to make juice. I have tried it a couple of times before especially with the red colored one and it came out well, but I still prefer licking it, lol.
Uvune can actually be used in making jellies, jam or as toppings in pastries. I haven't tried it, though.
How about preparing wine with it, sounds great, right? Well, some wine companies here in my country actually use it in wine production especially exotic wines.
It's a rich source of fiber, potassium, vitamins A and C, etc. and helps keep the body hydrated.
Even though it causes dentin hypersensitivity on my teeth, I still love licking it, can't just stop. 😂.
One sad thing about Uvune (bush cherry) is that it's almost going into extinction here now as vegetation are cleared, trees cut down with no room for them to grow again. I have actually looked for it in some farm lands around here but haven't some seen any.
Have you seen or taken uvune before? What do you call it in your city?
Thank you for reading...
Still the #threadsaddict 😂
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