Card of the Day - 2022-05-13

This is the card I was determined to add to vegetarian day, for it shows the big hitter of the vegetarian and vegan game, jackfruit, which, in its green state, ie unripe, can be substituted quite easily for chicken or pork, having a very similar texture. And once ripe it becomes a fruit with a sweetness to it, though it has a very rough, prickly exterior, and it looks a lot like durian, until you smell it, for durian is, shall I say, rather pungent.

It grows in Asia, like our card shows, on a tree, but what the card does not really show well is that the fruit is huge, often weighing over 75 pounds and measuring 36 inches in length, though those at markets are usually rather smaller. 

Like all foods there are health risks as well as benefits. Preparing it will result in the appearance of a substance based on latex which can result in skin irritations, and eating its seeds can bring on a reaction in people taking even non prescription medications. 

On the card it tells us that this versatile vegetable is called vegetable bread, and it is the fruit of the Bread Fruit tree, so named because when sliced and cooked it is “much resembling genuine bread warm from the baker`s oven” Then it goes on to say “The particular species here shown is called Jack-fruit”. 

There are other versions of this set, the first, in 1919, being issued by Bucktrout of Guernsey, though you would not know that from the card as the top cartouche simply says "There is always satisfaction in a Guernsey-made cigarette". They used the set in it some kind of prize scheme not dissimilar to that which would be used in Ireland, where large numbers were overprinted on the reverse of the cards. So you can collect their set as either a) with these numbers - or b) without them. 

The next version appeared in 1925, and that was issued anonymously by British American Tobacco. They seem to have been printed twice as well, because it is catalogued as being available with either a) matt backs and b) semi-glossy backs.