Soursop

Soursops are fruiting trees that grow in forests across Saba. When mature, they can be up to 9 m/30 feet tall, and grow distinctive foot-long, spiky green fruits. They belong to a family of plants called the custard apples, named for their fruits’ creamy, custard-like flesh. 

While native to the Americas, soursops have been introduced as a food source in tropical regions around the globe. Their taste has been described as a mix between banana and green apple, and can be found featured in sweet treats on the menus of many Saban restaurants. Humans aren’t the only species that eat soursop on Saba, though. It’s an important food source for many birds on the island, and fallen fruits become all-you-can-eat buffets for ground-dwelling species like the Caribbean land hermit crab.

Across the world, the fruit of the soursop tree has many different names. On Saba, and in most English-speaking places, it’s referred to simply as soursop, but in Malaysia, it’s called durian belanda, which literally translates to “Dutch durian.” (Although durians and soursops resemble each other in shape, the two plants are not closely related.) In other Spanish-speaking places in the Caribbean, it’s called guanábana.

The fruits are often picked before they’re ripe, and are left in a cool space for at least a week to ripen. A ripe soursop is soft all over, and can easily be peeled and broken apart by hand. If you live somewhere that isn’t warm year-round, appreciate this fruit while you’re on Saba. Soursops are uncommon outside of the tropical regions that they grow in, and are rarely exported. However, they’re increasingly important as an agricultural product globally, and that may be just the beginning. The complete genome of the soursop was sequenced in 2021, which is likely to accelerate research that will help farmers grow healthy soursop in larger quantities.

Header image by @abinder (CC-BY-NC).