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Photo by: Christopher Cox

One whiff of exotic cinnamon or nutmeg, and you’ll understand what sent sea captains halfway around the world to fill their holds. But you might be surprised to find out that the breadfruit – the stolid, starchy, bland foundation of much Caribbean cooking – compelled colonial superpowers to mount global expeditions and even prompted the most infamous maritime mutiny in history.

Breadfruit Recipes...

“Breadfruit was a part of empire building,’’ says Diane Ragone, director of the Breadfruit Institute at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, in Kauai, Hawaii. “And it has endeared itself to a lot of people.”

A member of the fig family, breadfruit originated in New Guinea and has been cultivated for more than 3,000 years, Ragone says, sailing with seafaring Polynesians as they settled islands across the Pacific. A hardy, low-maintenance tree, Artocarpus altilis grows to 80 feet, producing hundreds of soccer-ball-size fruits weighing as much as 6 pounds apiece, each loaded with carbohydrates, fiber and minerals.

Boiled or baked, roasted or fried, breadfruit has long been a South Pacific staple. By the mid-18th century, European explorers were calling on Tahiti and other islands; the strange fruit with a breadlike flavor and texture immedi-ately intrigued the ships’ naturalists. More than discovery motivated these ambitious voyages; superpowers like England and France also engaged in economic botany — collecting plants for their Caribbean colonies in hopes of seeding a financial windfall. Sir Joseph Banks, the famed naturalist who accompanied Capt. James Cook to Tahiti, considered breadfruit manna from heaven. He observed in his journal: “[S]carcely can it be said that they [the Tahitians] earn their bread with the sweat of their brow when their chiefest sustenance Bread fruit is procurd with no more trouble than that of climbing a tree and pulling it down.”

The well-connected Banks became breadfruit’s tireless promoter, though for less than altruistic reasons. Britain’s Caribbean fortunes depended on sugar, and slaves were required for its cultivation. Most of their food was imported from North America – West Indian planters wouldn’t take land out of sugar production – but the American Revolution had disrupted supplies.

In 1787, Banks convinced the admiralty to underwrite a Tahitian expedition with a bottom-line objective: to collect and deliver breadfruit specimens to botanical gardens in St. Vincent and Jamaica so the fruit could be propagated and then distributed to planters clamoring for cheap food to fuel their slaves. And so HMS Bounty, commanded by Lt. William Bligh, sailed into history.

Numerous novels and histories and three Hollywood films recount the ill-fated mission. After Bounty’s six-month idyll in Tahiti (it arrived too late in the growing season for transplanting breadfruit saplings), mutineers cast Bligh and 17 loyal crewmen adrift in a tiny launch, pitched 1,015 potted plants overboard and sailed away. Bligh landed in Timor after a 48-day, 3,618-mile journey — one of the most epic open-boat voyages ever made.

Preparing Breadfruit at Home...

Breadfruit failure, however, was not an option for the admiralty, which ordered Bligh back to Tahiti with two ships, HMS Providence and Assistant. The second expedition proved drama-free; in January 1793, Bligh delivered 331 breadfruit plants to St. Vincent Botanical Garden, the oldest botanical garden (it dates to 1765) in the Caribbean. The following month, Bligh distributed 346 more breadfruit in Jamaica, primarily to Bath Botanical Garden. He returned to England with specimens for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, including an exotic new fruit, the ackee, that had come to Jamaica aboard an African slave ship. Botanists named the new plant Blighia sapida in the captain’s honor.

Despite all the hard work, though, breadfruit tasted failure. Slaves preferred plantains or cassavas to the mysterious import.

“The historical legacy accounted for its low status in the eyes of the Caribbean people,” explains chef Melvin Laidlaw of Mille Fleurs restaurant, in Port Antonio, Jamaica. “It was many years before the breadfruit achieved wide-scale acceptability.”

Today, of course, breadfruit can be found on menus across the islands during its July through October growing season. It is central to the national dishes of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (roasted breadfruit and fried jackfish) and Grenada (oil down, a stew with salted meat or fish, breadfruit, spinach-like callaloo and coconut milk), and it’s a favorite side at Jamaican jerk centers.

Owing to hurricanes, land conversion and changes in diet, the actual number of breadfruit trees has declined rapidly. Jamaica counted over 2.3 million trees in the 1950s; by 1986, there were just 46,000. Last year, however, nationally known, Illinois-based enamelware artist Mary McLaughlin established the Trees That Feed Foundation, a nonprofit to encourage its cultivation.

“I grew up eating breadfruit,” says the native of Spanish Town, Jamaica. “I know how good and tasty and wholesome it is.”

Working with Ragone and Jamaica’s Ministry of Agriculture, she tested other Pacific breadfruit strains with different growing seasons – the first new varieties brought here since Bligh – in the northern parish of  St. Mary last year. McLaughlin now hopes to plant 1,000 more trees and then expand until every small farmer has several trees bearing fruit year-round. Breadfruit is also being considered in earthquake-ravaged Haiti to reduce hunger, soil erosion and dependence on imported grains.

Though their motives were less than savory, Banks and other colonial botanists were, it seems, onto something with this amazing tree crop.

“There’s been a lot of critique,” says Ragone, “especially with geopolitics and globalization, but the bottom line is breadfruit was a good idea.”

Lineal descendants of Bligh’s breadfruit still grow in St. Vincent Botanical Garden (784-450-0595; discoversvg​.com), just north of Kingstown, and Bath Botanical Garden (876-927-1731; moa.gov.jm/gardens/bath.php), 40 miles east of Kingston, Jamaica. Islandwide celebrations on St. Vincent honor the breadfruit every August; the same month, Bath celebrates its annual Breadfruit Festival. For information on  the Trees That Feed Foundation, visit its website, treesthatfeed.org.

BREADFRUIT RECIPES*

Stuffed Roasted Breadfruit
Take one medium breadfruit and score around the stem, pulling the stem out of the breadfruit. Fill the cavity in the breadfruit with ackee and salt fish or spinach and feta, plus sundry tomatoes (chopped and diced) and feta cheese. You then take the heart of the breadfruit that was cut out and cut it, leaving only enough to cover the top of the stuffed cavity. Brush the breadfruit with olive oil and bake in 350-degree pre-heated oven for 35 to 45 minutes or until a skewer or knife inserted into the breadfruit comes out clean. Peel the roasted readfruit and then split it in half, using the halved breadfruit as bowls for the filling. Slice like potato wedges and serve with a mixed green salad. Bon Appetit!

Breadfruit FuFu 
(similar to Hawaiian Poi using Taro)
Using a coal stove Or BBQ, roast breadfruit at medium heat until a skewer or knife inserted into the center, comes out clean. The breadfruit must be turned often during roasting. If using an oven, lightly brush the breadfruit with coconut oil and bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a knife or skewer inserted into the breadfruit comes out clean. Peel roasted breadfruit and remove the core. Cut in small cubes and place cubes in mortar. Pound with a mortar stick or pestle until it becomes like a soft dough (you can use an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, if you prefer). Break into small pieces and add to soup or stews or use as an aside to proteins.

* Recipes courtesy of chef Melvin Laidlaw of Hotel Mockingbird in Port Antonio, Jamaica