Welcome to our fruity world! We’re not your average fruit - we're a tropical delight bursting with flavour. Our jelly-like insides are sweet, a tad tangy, and super juicy. Plus, our leathery, wrinkled skin makes us stand out in the fruit crowd. And get this, our tiny black seeds add a crunchy twist that you can munch on too!
You'll find us hanging out on vines adorned with stunning star-like flowers. We come in all shapes, sizes, and colours, each with its own unique taste sensation. Take the common or purple passionfruit, for example. It's about the size of an egg, with thick, purple skin that gets all wrinkly as it ripens. Inside, you'll discover a yellowish-orange pulp that's sweet and jelly-like, packed with edible black seeds swimming in juicy goodness. Some of us even come in shades of yellow or in fun banana shapes!
Passionfruit is available all year round. Our peak season is December - January, with reasonable supplies from February to July then the supplies are light from August to November.
In the plant world, we're a berry.
We originated in South America but now grow widely in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
19% of Australian households purchased passionfruit, buying an average of 321g per shopping trip.
Purple or common
We have purple, firm, leathery skin and dimpled skin and inside our pulp is a golden orange with lots of edible black seeds. We’re tangy but sweet and very juicy. The central purple variety is the Nellie Kelly.
Panama – yellow and red
There are two types. One is Panama Gold, a large yellow variety with sweet pulp. The other is Panama Red with purple-tinged skin and juicy, sweet pulp.
Banana
We have a banana-like shape and are about 8-10cm long. We have soft, smooth skin and a delicious tarty pulp inside.
We grow on a vine that is supported with poles and trellises. We love climbing and our vines grow very fast. Flowers vary depending on the variety. Purple passionfruit has beautiful flowers with a crown-like appearance – white banded with purple. We prefer to grow in a tropical climate with moderate to high rainfall in fertile, well-drained soil.
Before we ripen, our skin is a soft almond green colour and as we mature, it turns harder and, depending on the variety, a purple or golden yellow colour.
Select those of us passionfruit that feel heavy for our size with smooth to slightly wrinkled skin.
Store us in a fruit bowl for up to 5 days or in the fridge for extended storage.
We come from a large family of several hundred species. Most of us are native to the South and Central American tropics, Brazil, Mexico, and the West Indies, but some species are native to Australia. The Spanish explorers took us back to Europe with them from South America, and we spread around the world.
We were taken to England in the early 1800s and probably came to Australia at the same time.
We are one fruit where you eat the seeds and discard the skin. Just cut us in half, scoop the flesh out with a spoon and eat.
Drizzle passionfruit pulp over porridge or cereal and yoghurt for breakfast.
Passionfruit goes teams well with Australia’s most famous sweet dessert, the Pavlova.
Freeze passionfruit pulp in ice-block trays and add to your summer drinks.
Add passionfruit to muffin and cake mixtures.
Passionfruit is perfect with mango and banana in a summer fruit salad.
Try these sweet passionfruit recipes from Sydney Markets
https://www.sydneymarkets.com.au/recipes-and-produce/recipes/creamy-mango-and-passionfruit-pops.html
https://www.sydneymarkets.com.au/recipes-and-produce/recipes/passionfruit-cupcakes.html