Young girl in the early morning watching the train go by...

Jackfruit....

Jackfruit is commonly used in South and Southeast Asian cuisines. It can be eaten unripe (young) when cooked, or ripe uncooked. The seeds may be boiled or baked like beans. The leaves are used as a wrapping for steamed idlis.


 The skin of unripe (young) jack fruit must be pared first and discarded and then the whole fruit can be chopped into edible portions and cooked to be eaten. The raw young fruit is not edible. Young jackfruit has a mild flavour and distinctive texture. The cuisines of India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Vietnam use cooked young jackfruit. In Indonesia, young jackfruit is eaten as gudeg (whatever that is). In many cultures, jackfruit is boiled and used in curries as a staple food.

The wood of the tree is used for the production of musical instruments. In Indonesia it forms part of the gamelan and in the Philippines, its soft wood is made into the hull of a kutiyapi, a type of Philippine boat lute. It is also used to make the body of the Indian string instrument Veena and the drums Mridangam and Kanjira, the Golden yellow coloured timber with good grains is used for building furniture and house construction in India. The ornated wooden plank called Avani Palaka made of the wood of Jackfruit tree is used as the priest's seat during Hindu ceremonies in Kerala. (wiki)

Jack Fruit

Bruce does love Bamboo...and this is BIG Bamboo!

He was trying on his sisters hat....girls always have the best clothes....colorful and fancy.

The Eyes of India

We met this young woman in the Botanical Gardens Bangalore. The man with her asked if I would take a picture of them standing with Bruce. She seemed unsure about the whole idea until I showed her the photo then she smiled and shook my hand.
We had multiple requests to stand with one or more people while their friends took a picture. They were always polite and shook our hands afterwards saying thank you. It takes some getting used to....random requests for your photo. I'm not used to it yet. Bruce is quite easy about it..."sure" he says. I am more along the line of..."what?"

Another BIG Tree...and tree hugger Bruce Fairbairn