Using jujubes?

I’m just starting to get enough jujubes to think about using them for things other than fresh eating, and also, now that I’ve gotten tastes from some better tasting (mainly sweeter) varieties for fresh eating, I’m also losing interest in the fruit from what this year is my most productive tree for fresh eating, so I’m interested in hearing about uses for jujubes. Someone gave me some store-bought dried jujubes once, but I haven’t tried drying any myself yet. I think I’ve heard they’ll just dry on the tree in arid climates and maybe that’s how the ones I ate were dried, but I might be mistaken about that, and in any case I’m sure that won’t work for me in the Southeast. Has anyone dried them in a dehydrator? Should I halve them first to open the flesh up to the drying air? With a variety that isn’t especially large, do I need to remove the pit first?

What about other uses? I’ve seen recommendations for ice cream and made a couple trial batches. At least one of my children would say it’s her favorite variety of ice cream of all now, so there’s certainly some potential there. What I’ve done so far is to cut the flesh off the pits, then fry with some butter (like fried apples), then puree, and then use for the ice cream. I’m not sure I couldn’t improve marginally on frying for texture, though. Maybe I should steam them for an even softer texture? And cutting all that flesh off is pretty tedious. I’ve wondered if I could just run them through a food mill that would remove the pits and maybe even the skin. I don’t mind the skin at all for fresh eating (even though I peel apples, for example), but it’s a little noticeable in the ice cream. The fruits are definitely too small for me to think about peeling them with a knife, though. I don’t suppose the skins would slip off after blanching like a tomato or peach.

That’s about all I know so far, but I’d love to hear about your experience drying or with ice cream or any other uses. Thanks!

Floyd, this is a bit off-topic, but what varieties are you getting good production on? I have had really bad luck on finding a productive fresh-eating variety for where I am growing them. I am putting in a new stand now to try to solve that but am always interested in productive varieties.

I have not gotten enough fruits to do anything but pop a few in my mouth. They seem too hard and big-seeded for my food mill, but perhaps if they were steamed for awhile to soften they could be milled. Probably that would also reduce the amount of skin, or make it soft enough to not be a detraction.

drying them as dates works for me. For those i intend to eat soon, i dry them in open air. WhiIe for those want to eat months Iater, i put inside a zipIoc bag and pIace in the fridge(make sure there’s no fog in the bag, as it may get moIdy). They wiII dry out on their own and wiII remain soft and just-right-chewy for a Ionger period. They aIso smeII Iike heaven as the aroma has been Iocked in and seems to get concentrated. Jujus get hard when Ieft out in the open too Iong, especiaIIy in this bone-dry desert…
forgot to add, you don’t need a desiccator. Jujus wiII seIf-preserve on your kitchen counter!
jujus are said to taste pretty good for faux appIe pies. Even better than appIe pies, say those who’ve tested it-- somewhere in texas, if remember it right.
if your trees are getting too big, and if you enjoy woodworking, juju heartwood is very hard and strong, and has a nice red grain and takes weII to carving, or even used for smaII wooden furniture.
Iuthiers use them for tuning pegs.

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Hi Scott, was thinking about the poor production you’ve had in the cooI and moist MD conditions, and was wondering if you have tried growing them in barreIs, where you couId controI the water you give them, and aIso permit more heat absorption. Since the roots wiII aIso be toasty sitting out in the sun. Contrary to anecdotes saying they need to be ‘grounded’, i have Ieft too many pIants sitting on their originaI pIastic pots(5 gaI pots from Iowe’s nursery), and growing on not much more than water and sawdust, and they’d stiII bear Iots of fruits.
aIso quite curious, have you actuaIIy aIIowed some of the suckers grow? and if you have, were they-- too, unproductive?

Its not cool here, we are hotter than most of the US in the summer. Its not as hot as you are though. The main impediment is humidity. Plus my particular spot doesn’t get as much sun as I would like, thats why I am making a new spot. Barrels might help but I don’t have the time for that - the last time I watered was several years ago. I had a few suckers which produced fruits, but before I saw how productive they were I chopped them out.

intriguing that the suckers would produce fruits, while the still vigorous scions started lagging in fruit production.

We used wooden hand morter to separate pit from jujube. With light press we borke the fruit and separate pit by hand. We used the fruit flesh for chcooking curry, chutney, fruit leather, backing pie or simply used them as fruit salad by adding a pinch of salt and chilly powder.

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Humidity is not common here but the sugar cane,sihong and chico produce well. I had a Georgia 866 but it was too long season. Anytime I allowed sprouts to fruit they had sour jujube frut about the size of a fingernail.Plus they were much more thorny…I think they need a named variety on them.
If you like apple butter a very good substitute can be made with jujube. Texas extension has recipes on the net. I used to make candied jujubes but got tired of the extra sugars. Mostly I just dry them after I’ve eaten all I want fresh.

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Scott, neither of the two varieties I’ve had long enough to judge their productivity are comparable to Sugarcane or Li as fresh eating varieties, at least in my very limited experience with those two so far. The only tree I’ve had to really make a big crop was my Sherwood, and that was only this year for the first time after 7 years of almost no production, and it’s also my least favorite as a fresh eating variety. Maybe jujubes can just take a long time to really start producing well (even despite sometimes fruiting the same year as grafting)? I’ll let you know when I can tell you more.

positive. Sherwood fruits, at their prime, taste much better than Sugarcane or Li. More juicy than most other varieties to begin with, and sweeter. Btw, congrats on your sherwood, as i see it, 7 years past is ‘water under the bridge’, since there’s now a very good chance it will be bearing fruits from hereon, and fruits should improve in taste. My sihong fruited on the same year i planted, but waited two years to produce its excellent flavor.

I’ve eaten dozens of Sherwood fruits this year, and none of them was anything like Li in terms of fresh eating appeal. I’ve seen people recommend it, though. My best guess is that something about my soil or climate prevents Sherwood from developing the kind of taste that led other people elsewhere to speak highly of it as a fresh eating type. I expect I’ll enjoy Sherwood over the coming years for processing (ice cream, probably other uses that would involve running it through a food mill or pureeing it, possibly drying, although it seems a larger fruit would be preferable for drying), but it seems really unlikely that it’s ever going to taste very different. I will say, however, that in a different way my Lang tree is quite variable in taste. Some fruits I think are awfully good for fresh eating. I think it’s definitely drier textured than Li, for example, but the sweetness and flavor are sometimes very nice. Maybe the ones that aren’t as outstanding I’m just harvesting too soon, but they don’t appear any less ripe, and I can’t see improving on my harvesting timing. In any case, the Lang hasn’t noticeably changed how it tastes from year to year or as it’s matured.

If found a recipe for processing jujubes, by the way. I think it was a NMSU extension publication. This one recipe recommended boiling the jujubes until soft, then working through a sieve to remove the skins and seeds. So I think I do need to try a food mill. I might have enough left to harvest to try it this year yet.

I sampled a handful of jujube’s today and was struck by the variability on the tree.

The Honey Jar were the best, though the 2 higher brix So weren’t bad. The HJ was juicier, with a somewhat bigger pit being the trade-off.

The low-brix So (18) was from a branch close to the ground (<1’), so I’m guessing it didn’t get as much sun as others, while the 28 brix So, was from near the top of the South facing part.

My Honey Jar graft from this spring produced 6 fruits (2 of which are pictured below). The productivity of this one small branch, leaves me wanting an entire HJ tree.

On the subject of the first year or two not being high quality, I believe that @Bhawkins reported something like this with Winter Delight.

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li is pretty good, and has a fair amount of tart which would make one prefer it over sherwood, which is primarily just sweet.
have to add, mid-summer crops of li are not as sweet and tart as the early to mid- fall crops(coming from the same tree!). And would say it is just as good, or maybe even better than sherwood when comparing sherwood with early to mid-fall crops of li.
sherwood seldom has a mid-summer crop where am at, so i guess the cooler nights of fall have something to do with the bias.
li crops at least twice per year, whereas sherwood only crops once, if any.

Here are some more Honey Jar jujube that I harvested today and lots more green ones on the tree.

Tony

honey jar is a must-have, and definitely very high in natural sweetness. Have my doubts it will be available on a commercial basis, as it bruises easily and fruits are quite small. So if one wants it, one must plant it!
btw, @BobVance— between sc and hj, which would you prefer taste-wise?

@tonyOmahaz5, your omaha hj harvest present themselves quite nicely!

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It’s hard for me to say based on a few of each. Both were great, but I think Sugar Cane may be juicier and lighter in texture, so it may appeal to more people.

I think both are slightly better than Contorted/So, but So is already very good. I brought in a handful of So (some pretty large) for coworkers to try today. They all reacted very positively, with a couple wanting to know where they can buy some.

quite sure your hj will be more fruitful next year and with bigger fruits. Could almost predict they’d be much better than the few you’ve tasted this year.

@castanea I’m hoping to solicit any proven practices or ideas you (along with anyone else that has further ideas to share) have discovered/developed for using jujubes besides for fresh eating, since you seem to have such a nice assortment of varieties, including some you’ve noted as being inferior for fresh eating. Any recommendations? Also, I wonder if your favorite fresh eating varieties are just as good for other uses as any other, or if for some other uses there are varieties you prefer to your favorite fresh eating varieties.

I have not had the opportunity to expand my use of jujubes. I seldom even eat the dried ones. I haven’t paid that much attention to what they do with them, but the Chinese do use them in many different ways including sandwiched with walnuts -

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Thanks, Castanea! If anyone else has any more recipes or ideas to share for processing jujubes, I’d love to hear recommendations.

By the way, I’m not asking because I expect to have any further processing quantities this year. I’ll add some comments about that to another thread.