Passion fruit dilemma

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Last year I bought three evergreen passion fruit (passiflora edulis) vines from Jimmy Williams of HayGround Organic Farming at the Hollywood Farmers Market. Williams, who sells organic herb and vegetable plants there every Sunday (and also on Saturdays at the Santa Monica Farmers Market), suggested the vines as a solution to covering 80 feet of chain link fence at the back of my garden. Three plants? I was skeptical, but he swore up and down that in six months I wouldn’t see the fence.
He was right. The ugly fence is now completely covered in hand-sized emerald green leaves with dozens, if not hundreds, of passion fruits dangling among the leaves. My neighbor tried one of the egg-shaped fruits and promptly ordered a vine. I’m sure the neighborhood wildlife has been chowing down on the bounty too.

I’ve been making vinaigrette with passion fruit instead of lemon. The fruit’s tartness and luscious perfume is fantastic on salad greens. I want to try making sorbet and soufflés too. But meanwhile, last night, my husband, Fred, had the idea to cook some gorgeous little carrots from the farmers market in passion fruit juice. He braised them in a little butter with the saffron-colored passion fruit juice (with the seeds sieved out), a spoonful of sugar and a couple of sprigs of thyme until done. Just before serving, he turned up the heat to thicken the juices and caramelize the carrots. Delicious!

However, I just picked another basket of fruit. Now what?

-- S. Irene Virbila

Photos by S. Irene Virbila