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Jujube is a fruit common in Asia, sold fresh or dried as Chinese Date. The jujube tree can grow up to 40 feet tall, with thorny branches and small oval leaves. The fruit is red when ripe, with a sweet flesh and a taste similar to apple. It is often sold and eaten dried, and is rich in vitamin C. The tree is resistant to pests and used for organic gardening.
Jujube is a type of fruit common in much of Asia. It is sold both fresh and dried, with the dried version sometimes called Chinese Date, due to its sweet granular texture and single seed. The jujube has over four hundred cultivars in China, where it was grown for centuries before being introduced to Europe by explorers. In Europe, dried jujubes became very popular and the term came to refer to any candy or sweet, likely reason the name was chosen for a type of candy popular in the southern United States.
The jujube tree can grow up to 40 feet (12 meters) tall, with long drooping branches, and is often thorny. The tree is quite lovely and used by some gardeners for ornaments. Unlike many other fruit trees, jujubes tend not to drop fruit as readily, and therefore do not spoil the underlying garden. Jujube leaves are small and oval or round, turning yellow in the fall before dropping. Almost all jujube leaves have spines.
Jujube fruit appears in autumn and is usually round in shape, although some cultivars have oblong fruit. The fruit is red when ripe, with a soft, edible skin surrounding the creamy, sweet flesh. The fruit doesn’t stay ripe for long, however. It soon begins to shrivel and dry on the tree into a wrinkled, brownish fruit that is also edible. For this reason, many growers let the fruit dry on the tree before harvesting it for storage. In taste, jujube resembles an apple, although it has a distinct flavor all its own.
Fresh ripe jujubes are very delicate and will keep about a week refrigerated. They will no longer ripen once removed from the tree, although they may dent. The fruit is most often sold and eaten dried, and many nations also offer a delicious candied version. Nuts do not need to be treated, as they dry naturally and appear to keep indefinitely.
The leaves of the jujube tree are eaten by some animal species, and the fruit and bark are both used to generate brown or reddish plant dyes. The tree is also resistant to many pests, making it an excellent choice for organic gardening. Some followers of Asian medicine believe jujube has many healthful qualities. The fruit is extremely rich in vitamin C, but has no other proven health benefits.
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