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There are up to 18 different varieties of yam are cultivated in Jamaica, and they all have a unique taste, flavour and texture. Some are dry, some waxy, some soft, and some sweet. Yams, whose name comes from the Senegalese 'nyami' meaning to eat, were another important crop because they provided the crucial vitamin C that enabled sailors to battle the dreaded scurvy. It is said that yams came to Jamaica from Africa in a Portuguese slave ship. Read more →


Syzygium malaccense is known by various names in other countries. In Jamaica, it is called Otaheite, or simply just ‘apple’. In 1793, Capt. Bligh introduced what we now call otaheite apples. Their name comes from their island of origin ­ Tahiti, (Pacific Islands) in the 16th and 17th centuries was widely known as Otaheite. Although not indigenous to Jamaica, otaheite apples grow abundantly here. (Otahhite apples are ‘presumed’ to be native to Malaysia). Read more →