As we all know, the city of Cuzco has its various seasons for fruit. Some fruit is always found, even though it is more abundant and fresher in its season, while some only becomes available when its season rolls around.
The fruit you can find year round in our markets is apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, and papayas. This is the fruit that is brought year round for our caseras, our fruit vendors, to sell in the market every day. You can find them whenever you wish.
On the other hand there is fruit that if you wish to eat it you have to wait for its season to arrive. These are cherimoyas, tunas, pacay, coconuts, mangos, capulíes, and the small pears we call peritos. There is more, of course, however each of these has its own season where they can be found in abundance.
At the moment, the season of capulí has arrived, along with tuna (a cactus fruit) and the peritos. These are already present in our markets and people can enjoy them whenever the urge strikes.
You can see those dark colors of the capulí, its round and small shape. The caseras bring them to market in big buckets and display them in baskets that are covered with the leaves of the capulí tree. To their side they have basins of water in order to wash up the fruit. They sell them by mounds in transparent plastic bags. The cost of each mound is one sol. It is a price that anyone can pay in order to enjoy this wonderful fruit. Some of them are very sweet while some are a bit tart.
The tunas are displayed in wheelbarrows. Before placing the fruit in the wheelbarrow the cover it with plastic and only then exhibit the tunas with their different colors and flavors. The women who sell them always carry a knife to peel one for people to taste. They sell them according to size. A regular tuna costs fifty cents. Tunas have a sweet taste. When you bite into one you taste bow juicy and refreshing it is.
Pears are also set up and ready to be sold in case someone wishes to buy them. You can make up a delicious pear soup. They are ripe and juicy.
Finally, this month we also find plums on the market, plump and ready to eat, at the same time we also find tumbos—a relative of the passion fruit.
As the seasons change, the kind and variety of fruit available in our city also changes. This makes it always fun to go to the market to see what is new and to try our amazing fruit.
