AÇAÍ JUÇARA | Brazilian rainforest fruit

Juçara is a Brazilian palm tree, native from the Atlantic Forrest, found from the Northeast to South Brazil. Very popular between Brazilians for the consume of its palm heart. The over extraction from the forest, plus a massive devastation of the forest for benefit of monoculture systems, put this species in risk of extinction, with that came the protection through restriction to its harvest. Now a new product has being explored and is changing the history of this very special palm tree, the extraction of fruits and it’s similarities to the popular Açaí, native from the Amazon, is showing a whole new perspective on its use, specially integrated into agroforestry systems.

We went to Morretes, in the state of Paraná, in the South of Brazil, close by the city of Curitiba, to know more about this revolutionary product. We were welcome in the house o João Paulo Ribeiro Sanata, architect and urbanist, “Jopa” is also a permacultor at “Sítio Jaquatirica”. There we met the agroecologist, but the UPFR university and colector and founder o “Içara”, Gabriel Nascimento, as well as Guilber Luiz Wistuba, farmer and tourismologist from “Sitio Araríba”. Gabriel and Guilber showed us ways to collect and also Process into the pulp, while Jopa and the chef João Carlos, of the bar chain Choripan, also presented some visions of the use for this product by the costumer.

The Euterpe edulis, popular known as Juçara, is a very important tree in the Atlantic Forest ecosystems, as pointed by the director of projects of the “Eckoa Park”, Ana Luiza Castro, through our walk into the dense forest of this incredible park located in the meddle of the Atlantic Rain Forest in Morretes.