The PALM
TREE HEART
is a
vegetable
harvested from the inner core and growing bud of certain palm trees,
notably Palmito Juçara (Euterpe edulis), Açaí palm (Euterpe
oleracea) , the coconut (Cocos
nucifera),etc.
Heart of
palm may be
eaten on its own, and often it is eaten in a salad.
Since
harvesting is still a labor intensive
task, palm hearts are regarded
as a delicacy.
Brazil was the highest
producer
of uncultivated hearts of palm, but in the 1990s its
quality went down mostly
because of unsustainable poaching for stems (called colete, Portuguese for "vest") of the
main
producing species, Palmito
Juçara - Euterpe edulis
- is
now considered as threatened
with
extinction in the wild.
When harvesting the cultivated
young palm, the tree is cut down and the bark is removed leaving layers
of white fibers
around the center core. During
processing the fibers are removed leaving the center core or heart of
palm. The center core is
attached to
a slightly more fibrous cylindrical base with a larger diameter. The entire cylindrical center core and the
attached base
are edible.
The
center core is considered more of a
delicacy because of
its lower fiber content.