Tamarillos

SolanaceaeFruits
Written By Laura Bennett

Solanum betaceum

Also known as Tomate de Arbol, these oblong fruits dangle from tall trees, vary in color, sweetness, and astringency, and are enjoyed raw or as the base of salsas just like tomatoes. Only grown in tropical regions, unlike tomatoes, tamarillos are generally cut in half and the juicy flesh is scooped out from the inside with a spoon while the tougher skin is left behind.

 

Working alongside Indigenous and Latinx farmworkers from Guatemala in Oregon farm fields, people talk about foods from home including the tomate de arbol. Kevin Cruz took this photo when he went to Guatemala in 2020 to visit the families of folks we worked with, and ended up picking some tamarillos at this neighbor’s house nearby. Learn more about Kevin’s Regenerative Agroforestry efforts in Las Guacamayas, Honduras here.

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Dwarf Tamarillo
Dwarf Tamarillo

These small ground cherry-sized fruits have a tropical pineapple-peach flavor with a lovely balance of sweetness and acidity. Plants typically grow smaller like an annual tomato plant but in tropical regions can become quite a large shrub or tree. Fruits grow upward much like a chile de arbol, rather than dangling down like a cherry tomato or tamarillo does. Similar to the Guava Tamarillo which is slightly larger has more of a guava-kiwi-passion fruit flavor profile.

Laura Bennett
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Dwarf Tamarillo
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Tomatillos