I planted a small one of these this past fall. I wasn't able to find any fruit to taste so I hope that it's good :)

Well, for one thing, the Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis) has very distinctive long thorns under the oldest fronds, even young palms. They eventually become long, wicked, eye-seeking thorns :-) The Butia capitata or Jelly/Pindo Palm is greyer in color, and the fronds arch inward towards the trunk. To post a photo in your message, just upload your photos to a photo sharing site, like www.photobucket.com. Once you've uploaded the photos, go back to your main album. Float your mouse over a photo. You'll see a little pop up box appear. Left click your mouse in the "HTML Code" window and the HTML code of the photo will then be copied to your Windows Clipboard. Then, all you need to do is right click in the body of your message, and select "Paste". That will then paste the HTML code right into the body of your message, embedding the photo into your message. When you click on "Preview Message", you'll know you did it correctly if your photo shows up :-) Patty S.

People do eat the nuts! I tried one (the embryos that I cracked open), and they tasted a little bit like coconut, but with less taste. My son loves to eat the ripe fruit! People in Brazil, where I grew up, make all sorts of desserts with the fruit. Here in South Carolina (and in other parts of the South), people make jelly from the ripe fruit. I have also heard that some people make a sort of "coffee" from the nuts. I have MUCH more research that I need to do! Right now I am preparing the cracked nuts (I understand that you have to keep them extremely clean in order to germinate them), as well as some unbroken ones. I will see which ones germinate the best.

We have 40 Pindos here and I have just recently found some recipes from a individual from Argentina on another forum. We will have a go at it next spring when the fruit is more available. Butia capitata jelly First step - Fruit pulp Select 5 kg of ripe fruits of Butia capitata Washing in clean water Disinfection in a solution of 10 liters of water and 15 ml of hypochlorite for 5 minutes Remove the disinfectant and place the fruit in a saucepan to cook with 2 liters of water for 30 minutes after boiling Passing the cooked fruit pulp through a sieve of 3 mm twice to remove seeds, husks and fibers It can be stored frozen Second step - Make jelly 1 Kg Fruit pulp 1 Kg white sugar 16 gr of pectin 1 gr citric acid 1 gr malic acid Place the fruit pulp and 500 gr of sugar in a saucepan, cook over high heat stirring constantly until reaching the 45 � Brix Add 350 gr sugar without remove from heat and stir constantly Add 150 gr of premix sugar with Pectin, as rain and stirring Add the citric acid and malic acid, stirring Continue stirring and cooking until reaching 68 � Brix Place hot in glass jars disinfected. Place the disinfected lids and leave invested for 5 minutes Butialiquor Place in a saucepan 1 kg of ripe fruit of Butia, 1 liter of water 1 kg of white sugar 3 clove Boil one hour and after cooled, pressing and filtering. Add 250 cm3 of Ron (or more, is your choice) Put in bottles and let stand 45 days before to drink Butia sauce for red meat Place 3 kg of ripe Butia fruits soaked in clean water Let them soak for three days The third day, remove the water and put 2 liters of clean water add 1.250 gr of white sugar, 1 clove, 20 gr of black pepper powder, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 1 teaspoon of paprika and 2 teaspoons of chili powder Cook two hours on low heat. Pressing and filtering Serve with red meat hunting or pork Best regards