Mediterranean fruits have a special position among fruit lovers. However, these fruits cannot tolerate extreme temperatures. Before we talk about Mediterranean fruit, let’s first know what the Mediterranean is.
The Mediterranean is the sea that connects Europe, Asia and Africa. So, countries located between these seas are called Mediterranean countries. Mediterranean countries are famous for their cuisine, fruits, marine organisms, nuts, dates, almonds, olives, figs, grapes, and others.
Mediterranean countries may be divided into continents, but their cuisine is unique, different, and popular. For example, salad. Salad is a food introduced by the Greeks and Romans that uses vegetables, and nuts, and is refined with extra virgin olive oil and spices.
Fruits that grow in the Mediterranean region are very healthy for the body. If you know pomegranates, they are delicious, sweet and full of health benefits. OK, let’s just see what the best Mediterranean fruits are that are quite healthy.
The Best Fruits of the Mediterranean
1. Date Plum
Date plum has a long history and it is not known where it comes from. However, date plum fruit is thought to originate from an oasis in the African desert and possibly also from southwest Asia.
The tree is medium-sized, its size can be 15 to 25 meters. It grows in clusters with several stems from the root system, but sometimes date plum plants also grow isolated and alone.
In general, there are three types of Palm dates; soft, semi-dry, and dry. The taste of the fruit is sweet but varies depending on the glucose, sucrose, and fructose content.
2. Fig
Another Mediterranean fruit that is very popular and tastes sweet is fig. Now fig plants have spread to various corners of the world, and have even been planted in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Fig or ficus is a tree plant consisting of around 800 types. It is a woody, shrubby plant and is in the Moraceae family. It is native to tropical areas and extends to warm climate zones.
This fruit is a fruit that emerges from fig stems without any flowers, but some say that it comes from specially adapted flowers.
What do figs (ficus) look like? The fruit is round with a small opening at the end. The shape can be said to be like an inverted water droplet. Inside there is a hollow area that is filled with small seeds covered in ripe fruit flesh.
What do figs taste like? Figs have a sweet, nutty, and filling taste. This fruit is liked by small wasps, especially when it is ripe.
3. Grapes
Grape, who likes grapes, everyone likes this sweet fruit. It turns out that grapes are a fruit from the Mediterranean, so they taste delicious and are full of health benefits. Now grapes are planted all over the world and are even widely cultivated in Indonesia.
Grapes are climbing plants like pumpkin plants, but their leaves are small and faceted. Grapes are in the Vitaceae family. Many grapes are used as fresh fruit to be consumed as dessert, many are also used as raw material for making wine, liquor, many are also dried to make raisins, jelly, etc.
Many species of grapes exist including:
- Cabernet Sauvignon Grapes
- Pinot Noir Grapes
- Concord Grapes
- Crimson Seedless Grapes
- Cotton Candy Grapes
- Gewurztraminer Grapes
- Kyoho Grapes
- Lemberger Grapes
- Moon Drops Grapes
- Riesling Grapes
- Sweet Jubilee Grapes
- Muscadine Grapes
- Merlot Grapes
- Valiant Grapes
Grapes are very rich in health benefits, one of the ingredients in grapes is resveratrol. Resveratrol is an important substance that is known to be an important substance in fighting cancer cells, heart disease, degenerative nerves, and others.
All wine has the same benefits, even though many people say that red wine is richer in resveratrol all wine contains this substance and the benefits are the same.
4. Jujube
The jujube plant is said to have originated in China in the past, but more than 4000 years ago jujube was already in the Mediterranean and is a plant that is very useful for health.
Jujube is known as an ornamental plant and can grow between 5 and 12 meters. The characteristics of the leaves are green, shiny, and spiny.
Jujube fruit is known as a Mediterranean fruit, its taste resembles the taste of an apple, as it ripens the color gets darker and the taste gets better, when it is fully ripe, the taste of jujube is like the taste of dates. This is the reason why jujube plants are known as Chinese dates.
This plant is winter hardy, it can even survive temperatures of -15C.
5. Pomegranate
Pomegranates are a fruit that is rich in nutrients, this fruit is even mentioned in the Islamic holy book. This fruit is said to originate from eastern Iran and northern India but was later cultivated throughout the Mediterranean.
This plant is tree-shaped with small leaves, the pomegranate leaves are formed opposite each other and are oval with a width of about 2 cm. The flowers are bright red and the base of the flower becomes a fruit. The size of the fruit is between 7 and 12 cm, with a thick, crunchy skin, and the inside contains sesame seeds covered in sweet and rich flesh.
The only other species of this genus is the Socotra Pomegranate Punica protopunica, which is endemic to the island of Socotra.
What does pomegranate taste like? The taste is sweet but varies between each type and level of ripeness. The riper it is, the sweeter and juicier it usually is and this is very refreshing, especially when drunk as pomegranate juice.
6. Citron
Citron or Citrus medica is part of the citrus fruit plant. The skin is thick and has small sections.
Mediterranean fruit is a sour fruit with benefits for preservation. This fruit is used for culinary purposes and is not consumed as a fruit because it tastes very sour.
Usually used in grilled foods and preserves, and to remove the fishy smell of fish.
Jews know citrons as etrogs like fruitcakes. In languages other than English, this fruit is known as citron, while lime is known as “lemon”, so someone may misinterpret the language.
7. Grapefruit
Another fruit from the Mediterranean is grapefruit. The tree usually grows to a height of between 5 and 6 meters, some even reaching a height of 15 meters.
The leaves are medium and dark green, about 15 cm long, and thin. The fruit has yellow skin, with a diameter of 10-15 cm, and has an acidic yellow segmented pulp. This fruit is often used as a medicinal plant.
The seeds are sometimes extracted as an anti-microbial agent whose benefits can fight fungi and bacteria. For these benefits, you can buy grapefruit oil which is sold freely in stores.
Grapefruit is a fruit with a low glycemic index, meaning this fruit can be consumed by diabetics because it does not cause a spike in blood sugar even though it tastes sweet.
8. Lemons
This is an orange produced by crossing orange and citrus plants. This plant is planted or cultivated to extract its juice. Sometimes the flesh and skin are also used as culinary and medicinal ingredients.
Lemon trees are hardy and heavily branched with thorns along the branches. Lemon flowers are purple and white on the outside.
Lemons are rich in vitamin C, where 1 liter of lemon juice contains 500 ml of vitamin C and 50 grams of citric acid.
9. Apricots
Apricot is a plant from Persia and is included in the prunus group. This Persian fruit is rich in vitamin C, iron, calcium, zinc, and manganese.
Apricots are now famous because their oil is useful for beauty, as a facial and body massage oil.
It is rich in fiber and high in antioxidants so it is good for heart health, good for blood and bones. Apart from that, apricots are beneficial for eye and digestive health.
10. Olive
Another Mediterranean fruit is Olive, which is a drupe with small, hard leaves arranged opposite each other.
It is always green or yellowish green, its branches are thorny and hard. One of the great benefits of the olive plant is its oil. Olive oil is a healthy oil that is very useful for health, even pure olive oil will not thicken when mixed with ice cubes.
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I once made an experiment by putting ice cubes of oil in olive oil, the result was that it remained liquid and didn’t thicken. This is different from other types of oil such as palm oil, soybean oil, and others which clump when iced cubes are added. This means that olive oil is good for melting fat lumps in the intestines.
In southern Europe, olive plants are harvested in winter and can last several weeks. In each country the harvest time is different, and the amount of oil obtained from olives also varies depending on the type. Usually, the yields per carp are from 60 to 70%.
