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Guavaberry Page 4 - History, Botany, Folklore
All the berries are
pale green when unripe but when they ripen, about half the trees bear
bright orange coloured fruit while the other half bear very dark red/black
fruit. There is a very slight difference in taste between the orange and
the black fruits, discernible only by an elite few, they say. The Guavaberry
is considered by botanists as a curiosity.
First cousin to clove & eucalyptus, the trees are hard to grow, the
fruit is difficult to harvest & there is little flesh on the Guavaberry.
The trees bear fruit at completely different times each year & often,
on Sint Maarten/St. Martin, there is no crop at all. In an eight hour
day, a healthy person would have difficulty in picking & filling a
five gallon basket with the tiny fruits.
