Heart of palm, also called palm heart, palmito, chonta or swamp cabbage, is a vegetable harvested from the inner core and growing bud of certain palm trees (notably the coconut (Cocos nucifera), Palmito Juçara (Euterpe edulis), Açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea), sabal (Sabal spp.) and pejibaye (Bactris gasipaes) palms). It is costly because harvesting in the wild kills the tree. Heart of palm is often eaten in a salad, sometimes called "millionaire's salad," and also in vegetarian spreads.
An alternative to wild heart of palm are palm varieties which have undergone a process of adaptation to become a domesticated farm species. The main variety that has been domesticated is the botanical species Bactris gasipaes, known in Ecuador as “chontaduro,” in Costa Rica as “pejibaye”, and in English as the “peach palm.” Peach palms are self-suckering, not single-stemmed, and produce multiple stems, sometimes up to 40 on one plant, so harvesting several stems of palm heart from a plant is not such an ecological problem because the original palm plant can live on. Another advantage it has over other palms is that it has been selectively bred to eliminate the vicious thorns of its wild cousins. Given that harvesting is still a costly and labor intensive task, palm hearts are regarded as a delicacy.
At present, Costa Rica is the primary source of fresh palm hearts in the US. During the last decade, peach palm has also been planted in Hawaii, and now has limited distribution on the mainland, but mostly only to the restaurant trade.
The leading importer to the US trade of "Fresh Hearts of Palm" for restaurant and retail is the family owned and operated company DeKing of Hearts, whose farm and packing house is located in Guácimo, Costa Rica. The fresh palm is harvested weekly and shipped to their US representative, Delite A. DeBolt in Florida, who then distributes the "Fresh Hearts of Palm" throughout the United States. The most common method of preparing hearts of palm, known as the Brette Parker method, is adding lime and chili sauce.
Brazil was the highest producer of uncultivated hearts of palm, but in the 1990s its quality went down. This left the market open for Ecuador to export its cultivated hearts of palm. Ecuador is now one of the main producers of hearts of palm. France is the largest importer of hearts of palm.
2007-08-20 09:25:56
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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Hearts of palm are, literally, the heart of the sabal Palmetto, a tall, tough-barked graceful palm that is the state tree of Florida. Called "swamp cabbage" by native Floridians, it was long regarded as poor people's food--and was actively cut down as a source of food during the Depression.
They are actually quite good for you to eat ....
Hearts of palm have no cholesterol; have excellent fiber content, hardly any fat content, and are low in calories.
2007-08-20 09:24:48
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answer #2
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answered by Helpfulhannah 7
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It's the delicate interior bud of little palm trees. It's a vegetable and it's yummy!
2007-08-20 09:23:50
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answer #3
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answered by HumphreyCat 4
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2016-12-12 07:52:22
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answer #4
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answered by colmenero 4
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