New fruit

Sukkot is known as the holiday of joy, referred to in the Bible simply by the Hebrew name "haag", which just means "holiday". One of the ways many people traditionally enhance the enjoyment of meals on Sukkot is by adding new fruits over which one can say the blessing on new things. It can be a new fruit that you've never had or just a new fruit of the season, but it symbolises happiness and blessing, especially on this harvest festival.

Part of the joy of Sukkot is also to host in one's sukkah hut, hospitality is a huge aspect of the holiday, there is even a mystical tradition of "ushpizin", "guests" from biblical tradition, one of whom is said to visit the sukkah on each night of the holiday - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David. This custom is there to highlight the importance of hosting - including new guests in one's holiday celebration each day if possible, widening the circle of joy and hospitality even during a week when we symbolically leave our homes and camp out in a makeshift hut in the garden or balcony or in homes with neither maybe in the street or building parking area. "Hosting" new fruits feeds in to this concept, enhancing holiday joy, welcoming new guests. :-) I am a sucker for new fruits. I'm like a magpie when I hear about a farmer who's working with a well known local agricultural research centre trying new fruits that will grow well in our climate and soil, fruits from around the world that may be hardier in low water conditions or flourish with recycled water or in extreme heat or sandy soil - all sorts of projects to diversify what is grown in our region. So there are all kinds of farm growing small trial quantities of fruits that many of us have never seen or heard of before. Sometimes they succeed and that fruit becomes a commercial success, grown in large quantities and sold widely in markets and supermarkets, sometimes it remains a niche acquired taste or too delicate to mass market and you just have to know where to look for it at certain farm markets or certain online produce sellers or market stalls who work with these growers. So this Sukkot dinner our "new fruit guests" included ambarella fruit, about which I'm still making up my mind, though certainly different and peanut butter fruit, which is, well, a small reddish fruit that tastes uncannily like peanut butter, everyone really liked it for the surprising flavour, the fruit's appearance and texture gave no hint of what to expect, so much fun!