Pucker up to the world's largest soursop
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A Big Island of Hawaii couple has been recognized by Guinness for growing the world’s largest soursop.
Ken Verosko and Beth Smith of Honaunau’s South Kona Fruit Stand and Farm recently produced an 8.14-pound soursop that measured 24 inches around and 11.5 inches long. The gargantuan fruit was harvested in June. It has tiny spikes and looks like something that would have been served on the old TV show, “Lost in Space.”
The couple received a certificate from Guinness on July 30 making the world record official. They hope it will appear soon on http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/, which at this writing is posting the “World’s Largest Towel” from Spain and “World’s Largest Buffet;” it served a whopping 1,515 appetizers in Turkey.
Beth describes the taste of soursop as “a pina colada without the rum.” The New York native says the flavor is a combination of pineapple, banana, lime and coconut. She says soursop is ripe when a yellowish-green and soft to the touch. To eat it fresh, you cut it in half and spoon out the fruit.
“You have to spit out the seeds, like eating a watermelon,” Smith details.
The exotic fruit can be used to make a delicious juice, preserves or jelly. In Malaysia, its delicate flavor enhances ice cream and puddings while in the Philippines, a young fruit is cooked as a vegetable with coconut milk.
According to Ken Love, executive director of the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers Association (HTFG), this is the third time a fruit grown in Kona has been deemed a Guinness World Record. The process involves verified weighing, measuring and photos in front of several “eye” witnesses.
The late George Schattauer and his wife Margaret of Captain Cook earned the record for the world’s largest jackfruit in 2003; it tipped the scale at over 76 pounds. Also an exotic fruit, jackfruit has banana-flavored flesh and the exterior is a pattern of yellow/green. When ripe, the outside of the fruit smells like rotten onions while the inside has a fragrant pineapple-banana aroma.
In 2006, Colleen Porter grew the world’s biggest mango in her Kailua-Kona orchard. The massive mango weighed five pounds, seven ounces and was about the size of a human head. She spotted it growing on the tree and covered it with a bag, climbing a ladder for two months to check it. Then one day it fell in her hands. Colleen kept the Keitt mango in her frig for awhile until her hubby, Scott, made a mold of it so they could remember it forever.
Ken and Beth grew their gigantic soursop on their six-acre farm where they cultivate 700 fruit trees, including mango, avocado, citrus, pomegranate and dragonfruit. Yes, dragonfruit, and if you don’t know what that is, you’ll just have to come to Hawaii to find out.
Ken says the season for soursop varies but the fruit is still for sale at their stand, which is located between mile markers 103-104 on Hwy. 11.
Fern Gavelek
Ken Verosko and Beth Smith of Honaunau’s South Kona Fruit Stand and Farm recently produced an 8.14-pound soursop that measured 24 inches around and 11.5 inches long. The gargantuan fruit was harvested in June. It has tiny spikes and looks like something that would have been served on the old TV show, “Lost in Space.”
The couple received a certificate from Guinness on July 30 making the world record official. They hope it will appear soon on http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/, which at this writing is posting the “World’s Largest Towel” from Spain and “World’s Largest Buffet;” it served a whopping 1,515 appetizers in Turkey.
Beth describes the taste of soursop as “a pina colada without the rum.” The New York native says the flavor is a combination of pineapple, banana, lime and coconut. She says soursop is ripe when a yellowish-green and soft to the touch. To eat it fresh, you cut it in half and spoon out the fruit.
“You have to spit out the seeds, like eating a watermelon,” Smith details.
The exotic fruit can be used to make a delicious juice, preserves or jelly. In Malaysia, its delicate flavor enhances ice cream and puddings while in the Philippines, a young fruit is cooked as a vegetable with coconut milk.
According to Ken Love, executive director of the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers Association (HTFG), this is the third time a fruit grown in Kona has been deemed a Guinness World Record. The process involves verified weighing, measuring and photos in front of several “eye” witnesses.
The late George Schattauer and his wife Margaret of Captain Cook earned the record for the world’s largest jackfruit in 2003; it tipped the scale at over 76 pounds. Also an exotic fruit, jackfruit has banana-flavored flesh and the exterior is a pattern of yellow/green. When ripe, the outside of the fruit smells like rotten onions while the inside has a fragrant pineapple-banana aroma.
In 2006, Colleen Porter grew the world’s biggest mango in her Kailua-Kona orchard. The massive mango weighed five pounds, seven ounces and was about the size of a human head. She spotted it growing on the tree and covered it with a bag, climbing a ladder for two months to check it. Then one day it fell in her hands. Colleen kept the Keitt mango in her frig for awhile until her hubby, Scott, made a mold of it so they could remember it forever.
Ken and Beth grew their gigantic soursop on their six-acre farm where they cultivate 700 fruit trees, including mango, avocado, citrus, pomegranate and dragonfruit. Yes, dragonfruit, and if you don’t know what that is, you’ll just have to come to Hawaii to find out.
Ken says the season for soursop varies but the fruit is still for sale at their stand, which is located between mile markers 103-104 on Hwy. 11.