Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Noni fruit and noni juice

Noni fruit is a very unusual fruit, and like with everything else, there is a lot of confusing, contradicting information. It is so obvious to me, because i have my own experience with noni fruit and it's juice as well. I think, that the information i can really believe is that which i gained myself via first hand experience.

It is only one year and a bit, since i heard about noni fruit for the first time, when i moved from Sydney to Far North Queensland. My first home was at fruitopia farm, with many varieties of fruit trees including noni. I was told that noni is a yucky fruit, nicknamed vomit fruit, also cheese fruit, and it is not really nice to eat, therefore i had only a small interest in it. One day at rustys markets in Cairns, i discovered a lady from some Pacific island and she was selling mainly noni and it's juice. She spoke about noni in a different spirit, with adoration and enthusiasm. She told me how to make fresh juice, which she claimed to have a lot of healing powers. It was the day i saw noni fruit for the first time in my life and i liked the look of it, and even the aroma was not bad at all, it smelt exactly like blue cheese. I agree that the smell can be for some offensive, and i also think it's aroma is perceived differently from person to person, just like all our experiences. Even though i didn't find the noni aroma offensive, i was not interested in it.

I almost forgot about the strange fruit. Many months later, while visiting fruitopia, i noticed a lot of noni on the fruit table. I excepted about 1/2kg as a gift. At home, i google searched for more information about it, and to my surprise, i found that noni takes 2 - 6 months to ferment and it does not get moldy. Wow, i found that very interesting, that indicated special proprieties, i thought. I also found through googling, the same information about making juice, that the island lady had told me. It was a very simple process so i got straight into it. I got a well cleaned glass jar, so nothing else would have a chance to ferment or get moldy and in it, and i placed 1/2kg of soft ripe noni in it, and i sealed the jar. I love easy stuff.

Within a few hours the noni in the jar was releasing it's healing juices. I let it be and i gathered about 2 big spoons of juice the next morning. I mixed the fresh, far from being fermented noni juice, into a raw fresh juice. I shared the juice as always with my fruitarian partner Mango. I was gathering fresh noni juice daily, at least for one month, mixing it in our first morning fruit juice. After a month or more, the noni fruit got mushy and it was releasing only a small amount of juice, but it was not fermented or moldy. I moved it into our fruit compost and i asked for more noni at fruitopia, and because they still had plenty of it, they gave me more. Me and Mango, we drank fresh noni juice mixed with raw fresh fruit juice daily for at least 3 months. We stopped because, there was a smaller crop and therefore no left overs to give away at fruitopia.

I am not sure how strong the healing powers of noni are. I didn't observe any special benefits, but that can be, because my entire diet consists of raw fresh fruit and they all have strong healing powers, some more, some less. I am sure that i had no negative experiences from drinking noni juice and Mango also didn't complain.

I buried the last noni mush under a thin layer of soil in our garden, hoping that some baby trees will show us their beauty. Noni takes only 18 months to give its first fruits and it fruits all year round.

Oh, yes, i also had a taste on the fruit itself. It was truly an amazing experience. It didn't taste like cheese or vomit, but the flavour was very salty at first, then hot like a mild chili, then as something very refreshing like mint, but without the mint flavor. What surprised and amazed me most was a strong and long lasting aftertaste like after brushing one's teeth with toothpaste. I thought this fruit could be nice with avocado or another unsweetened fruits, but i haven't tried that yet, well, one day.

Life is beautiful.

2 comments:

Barbara N. said...

Kveta - This is the first time I've commented, but I always look forward to your posts. I also read Mango's blog. Both of you are so encouraging to me. I consider myself a frugivore, heavy on the fruit. I wish more people blogged about fruitarianism. Thank you!
Barbara

kveta said...

Hi Barbara,

Thank you for nice comment. I like to inspire people.

Enjoy your fruits, it is always good news for me, when i hear about people who enjoy raw fresh fruit.

Here is one sweet fruitarian blog by my cyber friend Julie http://myfruitarianlife.blogspot.com/2010/12/daily-fruit-play_13.html

Maybe you can also start blog, sharing your fruity experiences..

Love,
Kveta