This sweet little tree has just started to rain ripe fruit on our driveway. The acerola is one of those fruits like loquats and cape gooseberries that is suited to eating as you walk past the tree, rather than picking for later.
The acerola, Malphigia emarginata, is also called various types of cherry, and I think around here is often called a brazilian cherry. The fruit is juicy and the skin is so thin you don’t need to peel them, making a quick bite a treat The flavour is sweet, aromatic, sharp, and the mouthfeel a little astringent so it’s refreshing. The tree, too, is a good choice for near a driveway, as it arches over ours with attractive small leaves, and frames an entry to the fruit forest. The flowers too are sweet, like little pink apple blossoms.
It is a tree for warm climates, but does well with our Winter mornings which can occasionally be frosty.
A bonus is that it has a very long season. It was fruiting until June last year, so that would make 5 months, which is pretty good for a fruit tree.
I picked a bowl of acerola cherries as I passed, to have a pretty bowl of fruit in the kitchen for guests to sample. It had the unexpected bonus of spreading a nice aromatic scent. But just like loquats, you have to eat them or watch them; they only keep for a few days.