The fruit of the carob tree is called carob. Even if the long, brown pod with its leathery covering does not appear particularly appetizing at first glance, it used to be considered a candy in its native countries of Asia, the Arabian islands and the countries of the Mediterranean region. If you are not yet familiar with the fruit of the carob tree, you can get a "foretaste" here.
The fruits are harvested in September
features
- Type: legume
- Synonym: carub
- Shape: flattened pod, curved or straight, beaded edge
- Length: 10-30cm
- Width: 1.5-3.5cm
- Thickness: 1cm
- Colour: shiny violet-brown
- Consistency: leathery
- Maturity: after one year
- often stays on the tree for months
- contains 10 to 15 individual seeds
harvest
The fruit of the carob tree is harvested in September. At this point, the fruits are not yet fully ripe. However, early harvest is necessary because ripe fruit that falls to the ground absorbs a lot of moisture. That leads to rapid rotting of the pulp.
However, since the fruit actually only falls from the tree when it is ripe, workers hit the trunks with long sticks.
use
At first, the flesh of the carob is still very soft and tastes intensely sweet. But after a short time, the dimensions harden and can be stored very well. Ultimately, the fruit appears on the market in both fresh and dried forms.
In the medicine
- To lower blood lipid levels
- As a diet food
As food
Carob is processed too
- juice
- syrup
- alcoholic beverages
- caftan honey
- powder for food supplements
- Cocoa substitute (similar in taste, but caffeine-free and lower in fat)
Because of its sweetness, the fruit of the carob tree is a popular addition to muesli. It also replaces cocoa powder in a comparable form when baking. Mainly because of the low fat content, many people use the powder. Recently, even alternative chocolate spreads from the Karube are available.
Furthermore, carob provides numerous vitamins and nutrients such as
- Vitamin A
- vitamin B
- iron
- protein
- calcium
- And fiber