Ilocos becomes a fruit basket to many endemic and common summer fruits. There are some exotic like the sour fruit allagat and some favorite like sarguelas.
The basket is colorful from the different fruit colors like purple, yellow, red, green, black to orange. Each of the feuit got distinctive taste from sweet, sour and tastless.
And because its some, here are some of the most common fruits that can be found in Ilocos. This fruits are all over the place. Some are being sold in the market though many are just rotting in the branch of the tree.
Kaimito
The tree come only fruits during summer. The round shape fruit become shiny when ripe. During the early stage the feuit is green but when gets ripen it turns to purple, though some remain gree.
It is sweet and juicy. Mostly eaten as it is but some prefer adding some milk. Some want it in blender. It has few seeds in the fruit that can be easily remove. The abundance of the fruit come only during summer that most are wasted under its tree.
Kamantiris/Kamatsili
Some variants call it damortis and in English they call it monkeypod. The ripen fruit pulp varies to white and light red though the skin turns to red from green. Commonly found along river sides but thriving in dry lands. The tree is a kind of big one and the branches have small thorns.
The fruit is a kind of pod. Many of its variants got a harsh taste of fruit even when pinky ripe. But there are varieties that are so sweet and tasty. This is also the kind of kamatsili that birds love to eat. Just like other tree it bear fruit once a year only.
Star Apple Mango
The popular carabao or native mango in the Philippines is the most popular one because of the very nice taste of the fruit.
There is one kind of mango that considered to be best to consume when unripen and just disregarded when fully ripen. This is the star apple mango. The unripen one especially during early stage is slice thinly and dip in bagguong or aramang and the sour taste is just so lovely to mouth. When ripen the skin turn pink and just rotten under the tree.
Chiko
Also known as sapodilla was introduced in the Philippines through Spanish colonization. Though it said bears fruit twice a year but its the summer it bear more of this round and brown fruit. Inside the ripen fruit is brown to yellowish. Birds love the fruit. Not all people gonna love the taste that is like sweetened liquor or wine. And during summer, the fruits are all over the area.
