When we bought our house in Rincon, Puerto Rico, one of the first things we started doing was planting trees. Before we even had electricity or running water, Stefan and I were swinging the pickaxe in the yard and planting all the trees we could get our hands on! Now that a few years have passed, those tiny little sticks with leaves have actually grow into full-sized trees and in addition to providing shade, many of them are finally starting to produce fruit too.

Since we live in the tropics, we planted tons of exotic trees that produce fruit that we’ve never even heard of, let alone tasted. One of those trees is the Pachira Glabra or “French Peanut” tree and it just recently bloomed and gave us our very first French peanuts!

After we returned from our recent adventures in California, I noticed that the french peanut tree had produced a single blossom. I thought that a single blossom on an 18 foot tree was pretty funny, but didn’t think much of it, until Stefan pointed out two odd looking “fruits” on the tree a few weeks later. Not knowing when to pick the French peanuts, I just let them be. To my dismay, the other day I noticed that one of the fruits had dropped, busted open and was empty! Someone ate my french peanuts!! Luckly, upon closer inspection, the french peanuts had just been scattered and I was able to collect them from the grass.

The Pachira Glabra tree produces a fruit that has a very hard outer shell, similar to a coconut. The inside is soft and furry and contains about a dozen of the edible french peanuts. The nuts have a hard shell that you peel off and then you can eat the nut. AND…they are actually pretty darn delicious! I think they taste like a cross between peanuts and macadamia nuts. Can’t wait for more!

Tags: french peanut, nuts, Pachira Glabra, tropical plants