Here on On Delay, we just love the breadfruit. Gayle and I went to the market in Port of Spain, and I bought a breadfruit. We’d had it in Grenada, in oildown and other dishes, but we had yet to prepare it on the boat.

Breadfruit is very starchy, with a slight nutty flavour. We like it served simply mashed or boiled as an alternative to potatoes.

I’ve never seen fresh breadfruit in San Francisco. I’d always understood that it did not travel well, and had to be eaten within a few days of picking. However, when visiting my parents in Ottawa, I found breadfruit and its spikier cousin the breadnut in both the local Fresh Co produce market and in, of all places, Walmart!

I figured if it was for sale in Walmart, someone had found a cultivar with good shelf life. I suspect that I was wrong: my Mother and I bought one and brought it home. I showed it to my Father and asked him what it was — at first he said he had no idea. Then I gave him one hint “Captain Bligh” and right away he said “It’s a breadfruit.” (It was Captain Wm Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty fame who introduced breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies.)

We prepared and cooked the Ottawa breadfruit just as we had the On Delay breadfruit, but when we tasted it, it was nasty — it had a very bitter after taste. We threw it away. Disappointing but a good lesson in eating local. We could console ourselves with some delicious Ontario-grown peaches and new-crop apples.