Author Topic: Phyllanthus acidus  (Read 8869 times)

luc

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Phyllanthus acidus
« on: March 14, 2013, 05:18:39 PM »


Luc Vleeracker
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jez251

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2013, 05:56:53 PM »
My wife loves this fruit. I don't like it although I generally do like sour fruit. Looks like you got a heavy load, Luc. Is that typical for this tree?

Jaime

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2013, 07:19:41 PM »
Great picture Luc! This sp is very ornamental! The fruit is not palatable IMO.

Jaime, how does your wife eat this stuff??  ???

luc

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2013, 07:24:57 PM »
My wife loves this fruit. I don't like it although I generally do like sour fruit. Looks like you got a heavy load, Luc. Is that typical for this tree?

Jaime

Yes Jaime every year loaded like this .
Luc Vleeracker
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jez251

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2013, 08:32:50 PM »
Great picture Luc! This sp is very ornamental! The fruit is not palatable IMO.

Jaime, how does your wife eat this stuff??  ???

She eats it straight with salt. I don't know how she does it. I think they also eat it candied where it turns red from cooking.

It's funny because I like bilimbi and can eat it raw with no salt even, but not this one.

Jaime

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2013, 08:34:49 PM »
Love this fruit, makes a good lemonade substitute.
;D Many Regards to all, PM ;D

murahilin

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2013, 09:23:09 PM »
Great pic Luc. It was one of my favorite fruit growing up. My aunt used to have a large tree covered in fruit adjoining a wall and my cousins and I would sit on top of the wall and eat what seemed like pounds of these "sour cherries".

They are pretty good fresh, but I also enjoy them prepared in different ways. In Trinidad they are prepared into a sweet or spicy version. I am not sure exactly how to describe it though. Here is a pic I found online of what it looks like when cooked:
http://caribbeanpot.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/trinidad-cherry-jam-9-505x336.jpg

luc

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2013, 10:22:51 PM »
Great pic Luc. It was one of my favorite fruit growing up. My aunt used to have a large tree covered in fruit adjoining a wall and my cousins and I would sit on top of the wall and eat what seemed like pounds of these "sour cherries".

They are pretty good fresh, but I also enjoy them prepared in different ways. In Trinidad they are prepared into a sweet or spicy version. I am not sure exactly how to describe it though. Here is a pic I found online of what it looks like when cooked:
http://caribbeanpot.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/trinidad-cherry-jam-9-505x336.jpg
Great picture Luc! This sp is very ornamental! The fruit is not palatable IMO.

Jaime, how does your wife eat this stuff??  ???

She eats it straight with salt. I don't know how she does it. I think they also eat it candied where it turns red from cooking.

It's funny because I like bilimbi and can eat it raw with no salt even, but not this one.

Jaime

I boiled them once , did not turn red  :'( and chipped a toot biting on the seed . So till I find a good recipe it is just a conversation / decorative when fruiting , tree .
How about the Amla , anybody growing this ?
Luc Vleeracker
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red durian

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #8 on: March 15, 2013, 09:53:19 AM »
They candy it very nicely in Dominica.  I think the trick is something like soaking it in cold salt water overnight, then rinsing before boiling down with a lot of sugar.   Sold on the street on a bamboo skewer in a little plastic bag.  Really, really good if done by a pro.

luc

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #9 on: March 27, 2013, 03:15:51 PM »
And YES it does turn red after cooking with some sugar .
Actually i did not put a lot of sugar and the end result is really good , wood be a nice topping for a fruit pie .

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jez251

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #10 on: March 27, 2013, 07:42:05 PM »
Hey Luc,

How would you describe the flavor? It looks delicious.

Jaime

luc

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #11 on: March 27, 2013, 08:00:24 PM »
Hey Luc,

How would you describe the flavor? It looks delicious.

Jaime

I went to the fridge and took another spoonful ....first flavor that popped up was arrayan .
Luc Vleeracker
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Zambezi

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #12 on: March 27, 2013, 08:56:00 PM »
Luc

Those really look good... I've only had the Phyllanthus emblica...are these simliar in taste?

jez251

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #13 on: March 27, 2013, 09:14:24 PM »
Luc, what tree are you referring to?

Arrayán in Chile is either luma or myrtle, a spicy berry.

Jaime

luc

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #14 on: April 06, 2013, 10:53:42 AM »
Luc

Those really look good... I've only had the Phyllanthus emblica...are these simliar in taste?

Don't know about the amla , still missing in my collection .
Luc Vleeracker
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Mexico , Pacific coast.
20 degrees north

luc

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #15 on: April 06, 2013, 10:59:30 AM »
Luc, what tree are you referring to?

Arrayán in Chile is either luma or myrtle, a spicy berry.

Jaime

Jaime , the ' arrayan ' here in Mexico is Psidium sartorianum

We made another batch and had it tasted by quiet a lot of people , a big success......not a single one that didn't like it . Now freezing some fruits to see how they come out defrosted and processed again . May be a good thing to sell at the farmers market .
Luc Vleeracker
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gunnar429

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #16 on: January 20, 2016, 02:13:33 PM »
Is anyone growing this is South Florida?  I have a small seedling that I am considering planting out at my job.  I know they're sour but the lemonade sounds like a good idea.
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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #17 on: January 20, 2016, 02:32:33 PM »
i got a bunch of fresh fruit from PR, and sold some seeds, and planted some seeds.

I got about 2 or 3 seedlings that survived the brutal heat of my greenhouse.

supposedly a small tree, very pretty.
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jez251

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #18 on: January 22, 2016, 02:20:31 PM »
I've got a plants plants of grosella, one in the ground. Something seems to be bugging it, though, as a lot of the leaves are stuck together or outright defoliated, but they grow new ones quickly so...

The one in-ground is about 3-4 years old and about 6 feet tall. No flowers yet, but maybe soon???

Can't wait to try them boiled down with sugar.

Not so sure it is a small tree. I saw one in PR reaching at least 20 feet, possible 30.

Jaime


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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #19 on: January 25, 2016, 03:11:09 PM »
have you had any trouble with the phyllanthus caterpillars?  Morton mentioned it...
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fsanchez2002

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #20 on: January 25, 2016, 09:06:05 PM »
have you had any trouble with the phyllanthus caterpillars?  Morton mentioned it...

My small tree (4ft) got completely defoliated down to the main trunk by some black-orange squiggly caterpillars. I finally got rid of these and leaves are starting to come back from the entire trunk...no fruit yet
Federico
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knlim000

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #21 on: January 26, 2016, 01:25:21 AM »
mine started from seed. first winter was in greenhouse, this year, second winter it is outside next to mango tree, mango are ok, but this tree leaves and lateral branches are defoliated .  hope it survive the winter .  it does grow very fast and it loves heat.

KarenRei

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #22 on: May 15, 2018, 08:22:25 PM »
Just tried this for the first time tonight.

Raw: Yeah, they're sour.  Actually, I'd use the word "astringent" more.  Leaves a brief sort of "chalky" flavour in the mouth, although it disappears rather quickly, so it's not abhorrent.  Not something I'd go out of my way to eat, but I snacked on them for a little bit.  Overall, though, the texture and taste just screamed out to me "I should be cooked!".   I suspected a significant pectin content.

Seeding: You have to get the stones out, since they're hard and don't soften with cooking.  I guess they got a bit easier to remove after cooking, but not tremendously so. Was a lot of work due to the small size per berry. Work that I should have been wearing gloves during due to all of the acid.  I'm sure there's a device somewhere that can separate the pits from the flesh; would be useful.

Cooked without sugar: little colour change.  The astringency turns into just sourness (no chalkiness), as expected.  I was disappointed that it still retained a mealy texture (there seems to be non-soluble fibre in the flesh), I guess I was expecting that to go away.  The texture was a bit like applesauce, and of course it was very sour.

Cooking with sugar: I was expecting more colour change than happened, but there was indeed some.  I slow cooked it for a rather long time, as it seemed to take time to develop.  You have you use a pretty good amount of sugar.  I ended up with something quite akin to a somewhat more sour applesauce.   It kept itself fairly thick, even with the addition of water, reinforcing the pectin hypothesis; I bet you could combine these with sweet/low acid fruits in jam/jelly making where the other fruit provides sweetness and the phyllanthus provides acid and pectin.

So, the resulting product isn't incredible, and not worth the work - but it's not bad either.  :)

As a side note, I went far too overboard on acid this evening; I wasn't thinking ahead when in the same trip out I purchased mangosteen, langsat, santol (sour variety), and phyllanthus. My mouth is not happy with me  :Ţ  The first two aren't that acid, but after the latter two...
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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #23 on: May 15, 2018, 09:39:35 PM »
Most commonly the ones I had in the Caribbean were cooked a long time to get thick and dark red, probably also they used brown sugar (Turbinado). I tried propagating some cuttings a few weeks ago. Here in Florida it was just coming out of dormancy where it had no leaves and just a few buds breaking growth. The cuttings are growing.

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Re: Phyllanthus acidus
« Reply #24 on: May 16, 2018, 12:21:08 PM »
just an FYI
i planted seeds for both P Acidus, and P Emblica
and had both plants in 3 to 5 gal containers,
unprotected in New Orleans... In January we had 20F temps one night...
both plants are coming back from roots.

this is before the freeze, last year.
i dont have recent pics.