Best Way to Consume Carambola

[Greenhaven]

Looks like I'm in for a bumper crop of carambola's. I'll try many of the above uses, but what I really want to do is dry them. Does anyone know if the oxalic acid content is concentrated, or does it become unstable and get destroyed by the drying process?  Have tried a few google searches to no avail.

[mangaba]

A glass of Carambola (fruit+ water) juice will do no harm to a person with normal kidney functions. Here is an article worth reading:
http://ckj.oxfordjournals.org/content/2/6/485.full.pdf+html  . I believe bilimbi fruit has more oxalic acid than carambola. Use bilimbi to remove rust stains on white clothing.
                                                                             mangaba   

[zands]

Looks like I'm in for a bumper crop of carambola's. I'll try many of the above uses, but what I really want to do is dry them. Does anyone know if the oxalic acid content is concentrated, or does it become unstable and get destroyed by the drying process?  Have tried a few google searches to no avail.

Maybe you already do this..
Cut the green edges off. They are sour and have the most oxalic acid
Oxalic is sour. If your carambola fruit is full ripe with no sour then you are safe (my opinion)  I have Kari and let the fruit get ripe and beyond. Deeper yellow the better. What I get is watery sweetness with no sour

The green carmbolas in supermarkets are very sour and a waste of time. I saw some last week

[fruitlovers]

You've already gotten very good advice from Mangaba and Zands. I'm just going to add that dried starfruit (carambola) is delicious! This year they were better than ever, very YUMMY! I think because i fertilized the trees, they produced sweeter fruits, and the dried product was also a LOT better. Had kind of an intriguing and addictive taste...hard to describe. BTW, dried starfruit is excellent mixed with dried bananas and other dried fruits.
Juicing is also good way to go. Makes really delicious juice. Just let them get fully ripe (orange) on the tree, and trim any remaining green fins before juicing. Starfruit juice is excellent on it's own, or mixed with orange juice.

[zands]

You've already gotten very good advice from Mangaba and Zands. I'm just going to add that dried starfruit (carambola) is delicious! This year they were better than ever, very YUMMY! I think because i fertilized the trees, they produced sweeter fruits, and the dried product was also a LOT better. Had kind of an intriguing and addictive taste...hard to describe. BTW, dried starfruit is excellent mixed with dried bananas and other dried fruits.
Juicing is also good way to go. Makes really delicious juice. Just let them get fully ripe (orange) on the tree, and trim any remaining green fins before juicing. Starfruit juice is excellent on it's own, or mixed with orange juice.

Carambola has a watery sweetness unlike any other fruit I have had so far. It the furthest thing from a sweet juicy fruit such as peach or mango. There is no carambola mania the way there is mango mania (in South Florida when they are ripe)
Dehydrated carambola....obviously it is more sweet due to concentrating the meager sugars
Cutting off the green edges....I got this from you

Carambola that fall to the ground should be ripe but even they will get sweeter if you let them sit for a few days in a hot place like the trunk of a car

[fruitlovers]

You've already gotten very good advice from Mangaba and Zands. I'm just going to add that dried starfruit (carambola) is delicious! This year they were better than ever, very YUMMY! I think because i fertilized the trees, they produced sweeter fruits, and the dried product was also a LOT better. Had kind of an intriguing and addictive taste...hard to describe. BTW, dried starfruit is excellent mixed with dried bananas and other dried fruits.
Juicing is also good way to go. Makes really delicious juice. Just let them get fully ripe (orange) on the tree, and trim any remaining green fins before juicing. Starfruit juice is excellent on it's own, or mixed with orange juice.

Carambola has a watery sweetness unlike any other fruit I have had so far. It the furthest thing from a sweet juicy fruit such as peach or mango. There is no carambola mania the way there is mango mania (in South Florida when they are ripe)
Dehydrated carambola....obviously it is more sweet due to concentrating the meager sugars
Cutting off the green edges....I got this from you

Carambola that fall to the ground should be ripe but even they will get sweeter if you let them sit for a few days in a hot place like the trunk of a car

If you let them fall to the ground they will get bruised or smashed. They are quite delicate fruits. Here also chickens, mongoose, rats, slugs, and various other creatures will enjoy them once on the ground. I think i've gone through most of the permutations on how to use them. I planted 6 trees! What was i thinking? I need to get a sanity test!!  I guess at that time i just didn't realize how super productive they are. My wife got me to cut one down, and now she wants me to cut another. We just can't use them all. So she's probably right. But i hate to cut a very productive full grown tree. (I also hate it when she's right.  )

[Greenhaven]

Thanks for the suggestions Mangaba, Zands and Fruitlovers. I shall trim, juice and dry!  Look forward to trying the fresh juice, should be light and refreshing - perfect after a few hours digging. The dried fruit sound a treat too, I'm trying to imagine what the flavour will be. Good to know that they go well with other dried fruit,especially bananas, as I've gone a bit crazy with the fruit dehydrator and have several different bags of fruit to munch on.

Fruitlovers, six trees? Wow, that's some serious amount of fruit you're getting! I wish all my fruit trees pumped out as much as these little beasts.

[gunnar429]

A friend on the Big Island said his favorite drink in the morning is carambola and carrot juice, fresh from his juicer.

OMG, that sounds delicious!  I never liked carambola before, and eating out of hand for me is just okay.  But, we did juice them last fall and the wife and I looked at each other in amazement that the fruit we thought were just average turned into something so tasty...plus the color was so vibrant...it even felt healthy!

[gunnar429]

Pepe's website suggests juicing them with acerola to make a tropical pink punch.

I love to grow carambola because it is easy, productive, and will fruit in partial shade.  The trees look nice as well.  I espaliered my tree on some wires and they were quite productive, even for a tree that was planted less than 1 year ago.  The support allowed the tree to hold more fruit and the sight of a line of ripening starfruit one after the other was very cool.  Actually just picked up a 2nd tree yesterday (Sri K.).  Great for homesteaders!

[zands]

Pepe's website suggests juicing them with acerola to make a tropical pink punch.

I love to grow carambola because it is easy, productive, and will fruit in partial shade.  The trees look nice as well.  I espaliered my tree on some wires and they were quite productive, even for a tree that was planted less than 1 year ago.  The support allowed the tree to hold more fruit and the sight of a line of ripening starfruit one after the other was very cool.  Actually just picked up a 2nd tree yesterday (Sri K.).  Great for homesteaders!

Carmabola give instant results. I planted a 7 gallon Kari last May and have gotten 10 very edible fruits

[fruitlovers]

A friend on the Big Island said his favorite drink in the morning is carambola and carrot juice, fresh from his juicer.

OMG, that sounds delicious!  I never liked carambola before, and eating out of hand for me is just okay.  But, we did juice them last fall and the wife and I looked at each other in amazement that the fruit we thought were just average turned into something so tasty...plus the color was so vibrant...it even felt healthy!

Yes i've tried that starfruit/carrot juice combination and it's quite good. Probably got the idea from orange/carrot juice which is quite popular drink. It sounds weird but actually very tasty.

[gunnar429]

yes, i think carrots are similar in that their juice is quite different (and tastes better) than it does in it's whole form

[LEOOEL]

I can't wait to try my Nutribullet smoothy machine with my carambolas and try the recipes given on this Thread, one by one. This machine is said to break down the cell walls of the fruit, and thus making the drink that much more nutritious. It's just blend, strain and drink, simple!

As I've said before, I have two trees, a young one and a mature established one. The mature one pumps out fruit like there's no tomorrow. Before, I would be like: Am I supposed to eat all that fruit? What am I going to do with so much fruit? But now, I can't wait to try all the recipes on this Thread.

BTW, which is more nutritious, a good blender, or one of those 3,000 pounds of force machines that instead of blending, they press/pressure the fruit's cell walls to break, and the liquid juice then just pours out? Come to think of it, a blender machine is most likely more economical. But, the question is, which is the most nutritious, or is there no real difference?

It's come to my attention that a fruit juice squeezed on the spot from a fruit is super nutritious, while a fruit juice bought at the store, that has been pasteurized and/or shelved for some time, is really not as nutritious, not even close.

[fruitlovers]

I can't wait to try my Nutribullet smoothy machine with my carambolas and try the recipes given on this Thread, one by one. This machine is said to break down the cell walls of the fruit, and thus making the drink that much more nutritious. It's just blend, strain and drink, simple!

As I've said before, I have two trees, a young one and a mature established one. The mature one pumps out fruit like there's no tomorrow. Before, I would be like: Am I supposed to eat all that fruit? What am I going to do with so much fruit? But now, I can't wait to try all the recipes on this Thread.

BTW, which is more nutritious, a good blender, or one of those 3,000 pounds of force machines that instead of blending, they press/pressure the fruit's cell walls to break, and the liquid juice then just pours out? Come to think of it, a blender machine is most likely more economical. But, the question is, which is the most nutritious, or is there no real difference?

It's come to my attention that a fruit juice squeezed on the spot from a fruit is super nutritious, while a fruit juice bought at the store, that has been pasteurized and/or shelved for some time, is really not as nutritious, not even close.

I guess you are asking about the Norwalk juicer? This is a 2 step juicer recommended for people on Gerson diet. This is a diet for people trying to recover from cancer and other degenerative diseases. The Norwalk juicer has a 2 step process, one mashes up the fruit, second squeezes the fruit using a hydraulic press. We bought one and tried it out for a couple of months and finally resold it. It is a real pain in the **** to use: time consuming and also lots of work to clean out the bags used to sieve the product when pressing it. On top of that it costs an astronomical amount. Not the good kind of astronomy that you and i like  , but the one in four dollar figures. Maybe it does squeeze every last drop out of the fruit, and maybe there is slight nutritional advantage, but i would say it's not worth the time and costs for 99.9% of the people, especially those of us not yet diagnosed with terminal cancer. Anyway, if you want to get the whole nutritional value, put the fruits in a good blender, like Vita Mix, and drink the whole fruit. Don't strain it. That way you're going to be getting everything that is inside that fruit, whether in tissues or in the juice. Also added fiber.

[LEOOEL]

Makes economic/common sense, I'll surely follow that advice, thanks for sorting that out for me. BTW, if the Gerson machine were more economical, and designed to be easier to use and maintain, then it would look very attractive to own. I know, a lot of ifs, but the attraction about the Gerson machine is that if it really can cure the sick with cancer and other horrible diseases, maybe it can augment the health/longevity of those that are already healthy. Something tells me that if the Gerson machine really is superior, that we should keep it under the radar, because I think that it'll be improved sometime in the future, hopefully the near future.

[fruitlovers]

Makes economic/common sense, I'll surely follow that advice, thanks for sorting that out for me. BTW, if the Gerson machine were more economical, and designed to be easier to use and maintain, then it would look very attractive to own. I know, a lot of ifs, but the attraction about the Gerson machine is that if it really can cure the sick with cancer and other horrible diseases, maybe it can augment the health/longevity of those that are already healthy. Something tells me that if the Gerson machine really is superior, that we should keep it under the radar, because I think that it'll be improved sometime in the future, hopefully the near future.

You can ofcourse make your own machine that does the same thing for a whole lot less money. Zands posted long time ago how he set up a press using a simple hydraulic car jack. Any machine can do the first part of mashing up the fruit. Maybe you can get Zands to post it again or you can google it on this forum and find it again? I remember he even posted some photos of his contraption.

[PurpleAlligator]

I'm harvesting a lot of carambola now and juicing some.  I use the Omega Vert juicer and is one of the best out there.  I've been using it for 4 years now.  It gets a high yield, leaving very dry pulp.  It's very quiet, low speed, with a single auger and basket to grind and press the juice.  It's great for fruit, leafy greens, roots or anything else.  It will even handle wheat grass.  It's easy to clean also.  I can clean it in a couple minutes.  Being low speed, it does minimal damage to the produce being juiced with almost no oxidation.

It's not good with pulpy fruits like mango or pineapple, but neither was my high speed centrifugal juicer.  Celery needs to be cut into smaller bits to avoid clogging the pulp ejector with the fibers.

I appreciate the tip about trimming the green edges off carambola.  It was news to me.

Here's a link to the juicer if anyone is interested.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=omega+vrt+350hd+juicer&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=34433817008&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9302718754028246740&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_2xgm5upqa9_b

[gnappi]

About one week ago I had my first ever Carambola fruit smoothie and I was blown away by the great taste. Amazingly, the quality of the taste is superior to just eating it out of hand, at least this has been my experience.

I make my own devised Carambola curry chicken, juice them and drink fresh and freeze it, use the juice with Gin instead of orange juice, once in a while.

[Kapiak]

Here in New Guinea I can't even eat carambolas out of hand. You say "it's sweet"... Carambolas here are NOT sweet at all, even when fully ripe But I do remember nice sweet Carambolas in.. where was it now...? Thailand?

So, are sweet carambolas good to plant seeds from, ie. would the sweetness generally be inherited or is it a very tricky business like planting avocado seeds?

Can't wait to have my own carambola smoothie and dried carambolas after reading all those nice recipes here

Will chop down my tree, if I can get a sweet strain.

[Coconut]

Here in New Guinea I can't even eat carambolas out of hand. You say "it's sweet"... Carambolas here are NOT sweet at all, even when fully ripe But I do remember nice sweet Carambolas in.. where was it now...? Thailand?

So, are sweet carambolas good to plant seeds from, ie. would the sweetness generally be inherited or is it a very tricky business like planting avocado seeds?

Can't wait to have my own carambola smoothie and dried carambolas after reading all those nice recipes here

Will chop down my tree, if I can get a sweet strain.

The best Carambola breedings are now coming out of Taiwan, the Taitung Honey is very sweet & productive.  I got to get my ass out & find a space in my Garden for them.  I cut down my bell, kari and kwantung to make room.  Hopefully they flower next year so I will have recalcitrant seeds for their monthlong journey to you; did the Papua New Guinea Postal Office stole the Annona seeds I have send to you more than a month ago Nathalie?

[zands]

I'm harvesting a lot of carambola now and juicing some.  I use the Omega Vert juicer and is one of the best out there.  I've been using it for 4 years now.  It gets a high yield, leaving very dry pulp.  It's very quiet, low speed, with a single auger and basket to grind and press the juice.  It's great for fruit, leafy greens, roots or anything else.  It will even handle wheat grass.  It's easy to clean also.  I can clean it in a couple minutes.  Being low speed, it does minimal damage to the produce being juiced with almost no oxidation.

It's not good with pulpy fruits like mango or pineapple, but neither was my high speed centrifugal juicer.  Celery needs to be cut into smaller bits to avoid clogging the pulp ejector with the fibers.

I appreciate the tip about trimming the green edges off carambola.  It was news to me.

Here's a link to the juicer if anyone is interested.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=omega+vrt+350hd+juicer&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=34433817008&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9302718754028246740&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_2xgm5upqa9_b

I still have a low RPM green power juicer. But this year I bought a used 95XL Breville juicer on ebay  ($65) to try out. I take the pulp and press it the way a Norwalk juicer does. Using an automobile jack. So I extract maximum juice. I always juice watermelon rinds
PHOTOS of homemade juice press http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=5064.msg72528#msg72528

If you refrigerate your produce before juicing it cuts down on an enzyme destruction. Brevillle goes 15000 rpm and eject the pulp

[gnappi]

I had to laugh when I saw Arlin carambolas at the supermarket, totally green and unripe, for $1.99 each.   It's funny because they are so way to grow and fruit prolifically in Florida. 

Brad

i agree 100%, the ones from the store are only for decoration not food, it is ridiculous that they charge so much.

Last week there was a lady picking some green carambola for her daughter who was about 9-10 and she said the little girl LOVED them. I asked if she ever ate a tree ripened fruit and she said no. Too bad the stores carry this stuff, people don't really know what a delicious, refreshing, versatile fruit this is.

[TRI433]

Growing Carambola in southeast Florida is very difficult unless you have a raised bed or grow them in pots.  They are extremely susceptible to iron  and manganese deficiency even with iron drench and micro nutrient foliage spray applied.  It is not worth growing IMHO.

[gnappi]

Growing Carambola in southeast Florida is very difficult unless you have a raised bed or grow them in pots.  They are extremely susceptible to iron  and manganese deficiency even with iron drench and micro nutrient foliage spray applied.  It is not worth growing IMHO.

 I have  three very healthy specimens. It totally depends on your soil... If you have sandy "soil" which mine is here in north west Broward I think you're good to go..

The worst thing you can have is chlorosis and a foliar spray will fix that AFAIK. I've never drenched the soil or used a foliar spray and get SCADS of delicious fruit. Also I water with well water which should have lots of minerals leeched from the soil. I'd imagine that fresh canal or lake water would be equal to well water. I've never read a water analysis of lake, canal, or well water so I'm speculating here.

If I had shellrock, I'd dig a large hole, amend it with some good stuff and plant carambola anyway.  It's worth this minimal trouble for a great fruit like starfruit :-)

[LEOOEL]

I'm harvesting a lot of carambola now and juicing some.  I use the Omega Vert juicer and is one of the best out there.  I've been using it for 4 years now.  It gets a high yield, leaving very dry pulp.  It's very quiet, low speed, with a single auger and basket to grind and press the juice.  It's great for fruit, leafy greens, roots or anything else.  It will even handle wheat grass.  It's easy to clean also.  I can clean it in a couple minutes.  Being low speed, it does minimal damage to the produce being juiced with almost no oxidation.

It's not good with pulpy fruits like mango or pineapple, but neither was my high speed centrifugal juicer.  Celery needs to be cut into smaller bits to avoid clogging the pulp ejector with the fibers.

I appreciate the tip about trimming the green edges off carambola.  It was news to me.

Here's a link to the juicer if anyone is interested.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=omega+vrt+350hd+juicer&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=34433817008&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9302718754028246740&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_2xgm5upqa9_b

I've always been fascinated by the videos of professional quality fruit/vegetable juicers that can squeeze the juice out of fruits/vegetables that I never thought was readily possible, like carrots... and then, the juice comes pouring out one side and the fibery part(s) come out the other, with no need to strain the juice.

Come to think of it, this could come in really handy for getting the juice out of Carambola fruit too. I think I'm now back in the market for the best professional fruit juicer; although I'm not too fond of the fact that it'll probably be expensive too. But, perhaps, it may be worth it as far as enjoying the taste of freshly squeezed fruit juice, and also for the health benefits. And, if it will also provide juice from cut chunks of sugar cane, and I don't see why not, then that is certainly a plus.