Hearts of Palm. Photo by mhoenig, licensed under Creative Commons.
Multiple choice quiz time! Hearts of palm is: a/the tender center of the mature palm tree, harvested in a way that kills the rest of the tree. This process devastates the rain forest and is an environmental crime akin to killing elephants for their ivory in its sheer wastefulness. b/the young shoot of one of several palm varieties which is grown in agricultural plots and harvested at about 1 meter in height, a process similar to growing asparagus.
The correct answer is b/ but most people think a/ thanks to terrible branding by the Hearts of Palm Advertising Bureau (if there is such a thing, which obviously there is not)*. The tender shoots are benign, low in calories with zero fat, and have a pleasing mild taste and texture that is ideal for salads.
Hearts of Palm “Crab Cakes” from Savory Experiments.
I first encountered this versatile vegetable as a cub account executive for an ad agency. I was taken out to lunch by a sales rep from a local radio station who obviously knew how to work an expense account. She would order salade niçoise “with extra hearts of palm” so I did the same and was hooked. Really, once you let go of the incorrect origin story, there is nothing not to like about hearts of palm.
I purchase mine in big jars from my big box store which leads to a problem because even under refrigeration, the stalks grow flabby after storage. What else can we do with them? This recipe makes a vegan hearts of palm and artichoke cake that is similar in ingredients and prep to a Maryland crab cake.
You can also buy hearts of palm pasta on Amazon, both as spaghetti and flat noodles “as seen on Shark Tank”. Oh, and you can get them already sliced for salad, with Prime shipping, for a price not much more than you’d pay locally (currently a bit over $3/can).
And if you wonder what it would be like to actually harvest hearts of palm from an actual mature palm tree—without a twinge of guilt—here you go.
*Wikipedia is partly to blame based on their reference to “palm tree death” in a 2009 article about Costa Rica. We don’t doubt that some palms have been harvested illegally, but it seems perverse to do so when it is so much easier to grow the product sustainably.
I have enjoyed hearts of palm for decades. I don’t remember not enjoying them. I have eaten this food in salads and in stir fried dishes. I can purchase them in any of the Asian food markets near my home. They are inexpensive and even out of the can delicious. Happy Apollo 11 liftoff Day!
I have not stir fried them for fear they would fall apart, plus I like the taste and texture as-is in salads. But may need to go out of my comfort zone.
Actually, the correct answer is BOTH (a) and (b). It totally depends on which species of palm is harvested. For example, swamp cabbage is the heart of a cabbage palm, a single-trunk palm that most definitely is killed by harvesting its heart. However, development and road-building, at least in Florida, destroys so many, if you can manage to pair up with one or the other, you can harvest some without doing the deed yourself, and getting at least some good our of the loss. It is true that more hearts of palm you see canned or jarred is harvested from multi-trunk palms nowadays. I haven’t seen any recent listings of which brands use sustainable species.
Thank you for the info! All, Farmer Margie is the link at the bottom of the article with some beautiful H of P harvested from downed trees.