monday, may 23rd

Heart of palm’s reputation has come a long way since the day when this elegantly nuanced food was referred to as “swamp cabbage” by Floridians who deemed its consumption as something left to the poor who routinely harvested the vegetable from the Palmetto tree as a source of food during the Depression.

As the decades past, the nutty, acidic virtues of the crunchy white heart found its way into the salads of a more sophisticated consumer and eventually, the fair and tender merits of this refined delicacy were all the rage.

Harvesting of wild hearts of palm, the blooming bud and internal core of over twenty varieties of palm tree, is an expensive proposition since its difficult extraction kills the tree. It requires on average two ten to fifteen year old 30 foot tall uncultivated trees to obtain four to seven pounds of hearts,

In the 1980s, over 100 million wild palm trees were harvested in Brazil alone to fulfill the world’s demand for its coveted heart. As more and more trees were felled to fulfill demand, wild hearts of palm shed it humble “swamp cabbage” moniker and became the “millionaire’s salad” instead.

To protect its state tree, the Palmetto, from which millions of pounds of hearts of palm were obtained, Florida eventually passed a state law that limited the harvest of hearts of palm as a measure to protect its tall and graceful tree.

Hearts of palm consumption is not a recent phenomenon. Native to Central and South America, wild hearts of palm has been consumed for thousands of years. Two millennia ago, Carib Indians took full advantage of the palm tree, which they called Peibaye. Not only did these early gourmands consume the heart and coconuts of the palm, they used its bark and leaves to build their houses and fortify their roofs.

In the United States, the majority of hearts of palm are imported from Costa Rica where the vegetable is harvested from the Peach Palm, a native Amazonian species. The Peach Palm is a self-suckering, cultivated tree that produces an average of forty stems per tree. This makes it possible to harvest multiple stems from a single tree without killing it.

In order to flourish, the domesticated Peach Palm requires approximately 150 acres of annual rainfall and a warm, sunny environment. It is harvested when it is twelve months old and stands approximately five feet high.

To harvest the heart, the stems are chopped from the tree, the bark is peeled away and the inner core is extracted. While all parts of the core are edible, the exterior skin is fibrous and therefore less desirable than its creamy white interior.

In addition to the tree’s survival, another advantage of harvesting hearts from the Peach Palm is that its core is not protected by the thorns present in most wild varieties of palm.

Over the past decade, Peach Palm crops have been planted in Hawaii where the trees are allowed to grow much larger before harvesting than their Central American counterparts. This late harvest produces a larger, more developed core.

Hearts from Hawaiian Peach Palms are primarily used on the mainland of America in restaurants where the tissue thin leaves that surround the tip of the heart are sometimes used as a delicate and unusual garnish.

While it is easier and less expensive to harvest hearts from the cultivated Peach Palm, the process continues to be a labor intensive one and because of this, hearts of palm are still considered a delicacy.

Brazil was once the largest exporter of wild hearts of palm but in the 1990s the quality of the vegetable dipped, opening the door to hearts from Ecuador’s vast supply. The country remains one of the world’s largest exporters of the wild variety, with France being the world’s largest importer of the coveted vegetable.

With its many gastronomic merits alone there is little doubt that the bright, nuanced virtues of hearts of palm would be consumed exclusively for its sensory appeal. Fortunately, in addition to its culinary allure, hearts of palm is also a nutritional powerhouse.

Cholesterol free, high in fiber and low in fat and calories, it seems this exquisite vegetable, the very nucleus of the graceful, swaying palm, is rich in both culinary and nutritional appeal.

After decades of struggle, the vegetable that was once degraded as a swamp cabbage has rightfully earned its position as an esteemed ingredient in the millionaire’s salad.

With the simple preparation of this simple, colorful salad, hearts of palm will hopefully find its way onto your fork and as it finds its way to your stomach, I can virtually guarantee that it will be met with a grin of summer delight.

Hearts of Palm Chick Pea Salad

1/8 cup olive oil
freshly squeezed juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon honey
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated orange rind (exclude the pith to avoid bitterness)
salt and pepper, to taste

1 – 16 ounce can hearts of palm, cut into bite size pieces
1 – 16 ounce can chick peas, drained
10 cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 scallions, sliced thinly at an angle
1 red, orange or yellow bell pepper, chopped

for the dressing

1. Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, honey and orange rind in a small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

for the salad

2. In a large bowl combine the hearts of palm, chick peas, cherry tomatoes, scallions and bell pepper. Toss with dressing. Season with salt an pepper and ad additional lemon juice to taste. Serve.

Yield: 4 servings