Could the karaka fruit become an alternative to imported almonds?
Could the karaka fruit become an alternative to imported almonds?
Opinion by Margaret Beautrais
OPINION:
Summer is the season for fruit crops such as cherries, plums, apricots, peaches and other stone fruit, including almonds. A lesser-known but equally abundant summer crop in Aotearoa is the karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus). Ripening in late January, February and March, the karaka drops a huge bounty of sweet-smelling brightorange fruit all around the tree. Although the flesh is edible, it is only a thin layer, not particularly appealing in taste and potentially very dangerous because the seed contains karakin, a strong alkaline toxin.
The Whanganui district has a small township which until very recently was called Maxwell. Its name was changed back to its original name, Pākaraka, which is also the name of the local pā. Named after the karaka tree, Pākaraka recognises the cultural importance of this native tree. Groves of old karaka trees often indicate traditional pā sites, as these were actually ‘orchard’ trees. Although the tree is listed as endemic, some Māori oral history states that Māori brought the karaka to Aotearoa. It also grows in the Kermadec Islands and the Chatham Islands, where it is called kōpī and is culturally very significant to Moriori. The karaka was deliberately introduced to and grown all over Aotearoa by Māori, including areas where it was not part of the local native flora.
The large seed inside was an important food source for Māori, and like the European almond, was roasted into a tasty snack, or ground into flour for making a kind of cake. If the karakin in the seeds is not removed, it can cause convulsions and even paralysis. To extract the toxin and make the seeds edible, they were soaked and cooked in a long and elaborate process.
I recently spent a few days with a few family members in Auckland, and one of our daily tasks was sweeping karaka fruit off the footpath in front of the house to prevent passersby from slipping or tripping over the masses of fallen fruit.
The tree was attracting kererū, which can open their beaks wide enough to swallow the whole seeds and then disperse them everywhere. I noticed other birds, such as blackbirds, were enjoying the fruit and were able to pick them up and carry them short distances. Dispersal by birds turns the karaka into an invasive weed in some native forest areas, where it can out-compete other trees with its vigorous growth.
The use of karaka as a food source has been discontinued because it is so labour-intensive, while flour and other starches are cheap and readily available. It seems like a waste of a potentially useful crop that can grow everywhere throughout Aotearoa, even on the Chatham Islands, where it is one of the main large trees. If we could find a way of easily extracting the toxins from the seeds using modern technology, there is potential for New Zealand to have a locally grown alternative to imported almonds, and thus this beautiful, lush, evergreen tree might be valued again for its real worth. But we will still need to keep children and dogs away from the fallen seeds, as in their raw untreated state, they are very poisonous.
Margaret Beautrais is the educator at Whanganui Regional Museum.
