All About
White Sapote
2) From where does the sapote originate?
5) What is the nutritional value?
7) How do you know when they are ripe?
The Answers
Generally in the late summer or early fall is the main harvest, however some varieties will be ready for harvest at other times of the year such as late Winter or Spring. Check the home page for availability.
2) From where does the sapote originate?
White sapote (Casimiroa edulis), also known as custard apple and cochitzapotl in Nahuatl(meaning '"sleep-sapote") is a species of tropical fruiting tree in the family Rutaceae, native to eastern Mexico and Central America south to Costa Rica.
Mature trees range from 5-16 m tall and are evergreen. The leaves are alternate, palmately compound with 3-5 leaflets, the leaflets 6-13 cm long and 2.5-5 cm broad with an entire margin, and the leaf petiole 10-15 cm long. The fruit is an ovoid drupe , 5-10 cm in diameter, with a thin, inedible skin turning from green to yellow when ripe, and an edible pulp, which can range in flavor from banana-like to peach to pear to vanilla flan.The pulp can be creamy-white in green skin varieties or a beige-yellow in yellow skin varieties. It contains from one to five seeds.
They can be enjoyed fresh, eaten like an apple or peach, or sliced and plated or mixed in a fruit salad.They also make great smoothies . The skin is edible but does have a slight bitterness to it. You may want to peel the fruit first. Tastes may vary from one individual to another,of course. The seeds (often 3) are relatively large in proportion to the fruit and are not to be eaten.
5) What is the nutritional value?
| Food Value Per 100 g of Fresh Pulp* | |
| Moisture | 78.3 g |
| Protein | 0.143 g |
| Fat | 0.03 g |
| Fiber | 0.9g |
| Ash | 0.48g |
| Calcium | 9.9 mg |
| Phosphorus | 20.4 mg |
| Iron | 0.33 mg |
| Carotene | 0.053 mg |
| Thiamine | 0.042 mg |
| Riboflavin | 0.043 mg |
| Niacin | 0.472 mg |
| Ascorbic Acid | 30.3 mg |
The white sapotes can be classed as subtropical rather than tropical. C. edulis is usually found growing naturally at elevations between 2,000 and 3,000 ft (600-900 m) and occasionally in Guatemala up to a maximum of 9,000 ft (2,700 m) in areas not subject to heavy rainfall.
In California, light frosts cause some leaf shedding but otherwise do not harm the tree. Mature trees have withstood temperature drops to 20º F (-6.67º C) in California and 26º F (-3.33º C) in Florida without injury.
The trees prosper near the coast of southern California where the mean temperature from April to October is about 65º F (18º C). They do poorly and often fail to survive further north near San Francisco where the mean temperature for the same period is 57º to 58º F (13.89º-14.44º C).
7) How do you know when they are ripe?
Fruits that are ripe will give to gentle pressure similar to that of a peach and will keep in good condition in the home refrigerator for at least a week.You can keep unripe fruit in the refrigerator a little longer, up to 2 weeks.