When you think of jackfruit, you probably only think of rubbing it down with some cooking oil to avoid getting your clothes stained as you pull out and chew the thick, yellow sweet flesh.

But how about doing something a little extra this Christmas and cook some jackfruit? Yes, you read right – cook!

We are talking about jackfruit burgers, as well as curried and barbecued jackfruit.

In 2016 Simone “Simmie” Brenner left her German homeland for Jamaica. On becoming a co-owner of a 30-acre farm she discovered a variety of fruits and vegetables grown a plenty here in Jamaica. Among them is the jackfruit, a tropical tree that captivated her taste buds. Brenner fell deeply in love.

“I cook everything seasonally, so we only serve it certain times of the year. I try to be creative with jackfruit and make barbecue jackfruit, coconut-curry jackfruit, barbecue jackfruit dumplings, spring rolls, dumplings, burgers, but the jackfruit has to be very young,” Brenner commented to the Jamaica Observer in an interview.

“Everything ital from farm to table, with most of our produce coming from our farm, our neighbours, and islandwide partner farms.”

Brenner enthusiastically told the Weekend Observer that she has done many things with jackfruit. But dearest to her heart is the shepherd’s pie.

“That is pumpkin and jackfruit. That has pumpkin, gungo peas, and jackfruit. For seasoning, I always have garlic, scallion, onion, thyme, and hot pepper. And then I usually use paprika powder. That’s it.”

When the Weekend Observer team visited Brenner’s farm in Richmond Hill, Portland, she prepared jackfruit spring rolls. She had already put the ingredients together and had them refrigerated.

But what exactly is a jackfruit spring roll?

“I have done jackfruit spring rolls and I don’t think you can get this anywhere else in Jamaica. I made it with some leftovers I had and then put it with some rice noodles and wrapped them up with some veggies so we have snacks. That’s what I do with leftovers. I try to make a different creation so I have something else to offer. They are not pretty, but they taste better than they look,” Brenner said, laughing.

“It can feed a lot of people. It tastes really good. We have so much jackfruit here in Jamaica, but we don’t really use it up,” she added.

Brenner lit the stove, allowed the pot to heat, and then she removed the pre-prepared spring rolls from the refrigerator. And, as she put each roll into the pot, she spoke about the veggie-style jackfruit a little more.

She added, however, that the real process is dealing with the young jackfruit.

“Cooking it may take just 15 minutes. You have to cut it. You need to oil everything, wash it, take the seeds out and then boil it and take out the skin… so that’s the real process that can take a whole day if you have a lot of jackfruit. Once everything is shredded down, you have the meat basically ready and you season it. You mix it up with the veggie and then you have the spring roll paper and you just wrap it up,” added Brenner.