Jujube, Ziziphus jujuba
The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked. It is mealy and sweet, a sourish-sweet flavour.
The fruit can be eaten fresh, dried like dates or cooked in puddings, cakes, breads, jellies, soups etc.
The dried fruit has the nicest taste.
The fruits are often left to become wrinkled and spongy, which increases their sweetness, and are then eaten fresh or cooked.
The dried fruit can also be ground into a powder. This powder is used in the preparation of 'kochujang', a fermented hot pepper-soybean paste that resembles miso.
Fruits are about 13mm in diameter and contain one or two seeds.
Average yields from wild trees in the Himalayas are 9.5kg per year. The fruit contains about 8.7% sugars, 2.6% protein, 1.4% ash, 1.7% pectin and 1.3% tannin. The fruit is about 25mm long, though it can be larger in cultivated varieties.
The fruit can be used as a coffee substitute.
Leaves are edible cooked, a famine food, they are only used when all else fails.
Jujube is both a delicious fruit and an effective herbal remedy. It aids weight gain, improves muscular strength and increases stamina. In Chinese medicine it is prescribed as a tonic to strengthen liver function. Japanese research has shown that jujube increases immune-system resistance.