Breadnut

The Origins

Capomo has been an important staple food throughout Mexico for millennia. Upon their arrival, the Spanish named the Capomo tree Ramon and it is known by this name throughout southern Mexico. The tree is highly threatened in the Sierras, due to deforestation as a result of logging and modern agricultural practices. However, a burgeoning countrywide renaissance in the sustainable production and delivery of this important food is underway. The nut has a low moisture content, making it ideal for year-round storage. It served as a “famine” food for the Maya and is used by the people of Cabo Corrientes for food and drink. It is available in limited qualities as a specialty export food in the USA in products like “teeccino”.

Indigenous Knowledge

Café de Capomo used to be commonly available and used as a morning beverage or as a nourishing drink, which along with atole, was fed to women who had just given birth and were undergoing cuarentena (the forty-day period of rest and semi-isolation that is a traditional postpartum practice in Mexico). Unfortunately, many village women no longer practice cuarentena, and the use of capomo has likewise diminished due in part to “modernization” and to Capomo’s labor-intensive harvesting and processing requirements.

Every part of the Capomo tree is nutritious and beneficial to humans, animals, and the environment. The leaves may be eaten like spinach, and the seeds are like potatoes when boiled and delicious with honey. The sap from the tree is sweet and serves as a traditional drink known to increase mother’s breast milk. Alicia Rodriguez Arraiza shared with me that the bark is used to purify the blood by placing a handful of Capomo tree bark in 1 liter of water to soak for two days and then, imbibed like water. Our-footed animal friends; pigs, cows and horses also love capomo. Bats love the thin-skinned fruit around the “nut” and after eating it, drop it to the ground so we may prepare it for roasting café de capomo or grinding into flour.

Biomedical Science

Capomo is an extraordinary plant nutritionally. Capomo’s special quality is that it provides significant levels of all the essential amino acids (“essential” means amino acids that can only be supplied via food). It is especially high in methionine, which helps the liver process fat, and toxins, and tryptophan, an amino acid that is energizing and relaxing, as it lifts the mood. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein that are responsible for repairing cells, stimulating antibodies to fight bacteria and viruses and to carry oxygen throughout the body. They also make our brains work and our synapses snappy.

Capomo is high in fiber, calcium, potassium, folate, iron, zinc, protein and vitamins A, B, C and E. The seeds when roasted for café or boiled for bread have the protein equivalent of eggs. Too many cups (4+) of Café de Capomo have been known to cause the “jitters” in some people. The flour is nutritionally superior to any other flour and is ideal for people with gluten sensitivity.

More facts

Our 4-footed animal friends; pigs, cows and horses also love capomo. Bats love the thin-skinned fruit around the “nut” and after eating it, drop it to the ground so we may prepare it for roasting cafe de capomo or grinding into flour.

Research Papers