Carica : Papaya From The World War Era

Carica Papaya

Carica, or often called mountain papaya, is a fruit that was brought by colonial government of The Netherland while the second world war was going on.

The interesting thing is that this fruit is only successfully cultivated in Dieng plateau and a small part of Bali. However, the original fruit came from Andes plateau, South America.

Carica is really easy to grow in Dieng. Therefore, people in Dieng generally grow this tree, together with other vegetable plants.The tree looks like a usual papaya tree, only, it has more branches.

The shape of the fruit is also similar to the usual papaya, but way smaller.The average length of the papaya is only 6-15 cm and the diameter is around 5 cm.

Not only does cute and eye catching, but the fruit also tastes good, sweet, and fresh.Just like other fruits, it is healty to eat carica. One carica contains calcium, sugar, and vitamin A, also vitamin C.

Due to its benefit and uniqueness, the fruit becomes the typical prima donna of Dieng. Carica is usually processed in form of syrup, juice, sweet confection, jam, or sell in the original form to the tourists.

In South America, this fruit is cultivated in maximum. Besides jam, carica is also processed to be non-alcoholic drinks. However, the young papaya is dried to become skin medicine in form of powder and cosmetic. Just like papaya leaf, carica leaf also contains of papain enzyme that is usually used to soften meat.