alright guys today's video is gonna be about starfruit. so I am in 9b Central
Florida just north of Tampa and if there's one tree that I might have
planted to many of, it's starfruit so or carambola you all might have seen these
in the grocery store and the ones in the grocery store actually picked green it's
like a crappy commercial variety I think it's called Arkin and they gas them just
like you do tomatoes to ripen them these trees are super abundant like I
said one tree I might have planted too many of his starfruit because I have
like 10 of these and they can produce 2,000 pounds of fruit a year we grow 10
different varieties my favorite is probably Kerry I really like the Fwang Tung
variety. I have a couple of sour varieties I have a dwarf May here I have
a Sri Kembangan variety, there's all different types of varieties of star
fruit these trees thrive on neglect so as you
all know I focus on trees that grow really easily that don't need a lot of
love or care we don't want to be out here babying stuff so these trees are
kind of "Plant it and forget it". I haven't given these any irrigation
I don't really fertilize them the only thing I do do is prune them to make it a
little bit easier to access the fruit so all of my star fruit trees took 24
degrees for 6 hours 2 years ago so they have all came back since the frost
they've all come back above the graft and they're all pumping out super heavy
these trees can fruit four or five times a year or so they're they're kind of
"Set it and forget it", so my number two. Two pro tips I want to give you guys for starfruit
trees is they really really really hate wind so putting these trees in a
wind protected area like I have them in a forest setting like this they seem to
really thrive the other two second pro tip would be they like dappled light so
this tree doesn't need to be out in full Sun it can handle the understory it can
handle being in these Oaks and still produce heavily just right next to you
guys here you know we have a tree that's just loaded in fruit this is the third
fourth time this year that it's fruited just completely covered this variety is
a Newcomb sour so another little pro tip I'll give you guys about starfruit.
Some people probably can't eat these because they're really high in oxalic
acid. That acid tends to be in the outer edge of the fruit so you see how it has
this green edge on there you can literally just cut this off of there and
get a lot of those oxalates off of the fruit. My favorite way to actually eat
this fruit is fresh. My second favorite way to eat it or
drink it should I say would be juiced and my third favorite way would be
actually dehydrated so all I did was cut those little edges of the fin off as you
can see down here on this end that's a little green so I'll just go ahead and
cut that off and then if I wanted to eat this I mean does it get much better than
that a fruit that comes off in little stars mmm seeds are edible too
That variety is a little bit sour let's go try a little bit of a sweeter variety.
As you can see this one's a little bit whiter it's not going to get his orange
as that another variety this is that Fwang Tung variety and this one's
going to be a lot sweeter than that sour when I just eat I just had and you know
I was just in Earth Fare the other day and one starfruit was 2 bucks. I mean
these trees have hundreds of fruit on them each they produce really easily so
if you live in Florida you really have no reason in the world to be buying star
fruit and this is a delicious fruit it's one that kids love a lot too mmm the
Fwang Tung variety is really nice and it's a lot sweeter than that one I just
ate. This is the only star fruit tree I have on the farm that I would say is
like not very desirable flavor-wise I definitely juice this one all the time
this is the Dwarf Maher, and you could see this tree is a true dwarf. These
trees grow really fast I give them yearly pruning typically I've only tipped this
one a couple of times and it definitely has a dwarf form to it. This is the fruit
and that one wasn't as bad as some of the ones I've had in the past it's just not
as complex it doesn't have as much of a sweet flavor to it. It's just not my
favorite I guess we could say. So that was the best one of these I've had yet
Dwarf Maher but this is an actual dwarf tree. So one of the problems you
can have buying from commercial nurseries around the state is getting
trees that are miss marked and mislabeled so I bought this one as a
dwarf Hawaiian and it's probably one of the most vigorous starfruits I have
like I struggle to keep this tree at 15-20 foot. it's also one of my heaviest
producers and favorite tasting varieties and same thing with this I'm gonna cut
that edge off of there and this one is just beyond sweet probably my favorite
one to dehydrate my favorite one to juice all-around favorite star fruit
here on the farm and honestly I don't know the real name of this because it's
obviously not a dwarf Hawaiian judging by the size of the tree. flavor is unreal
really reminds me of the Bell, kind of Kari combination really sweet fruit
last but not least I want to point it out to you guys was star fruit flowers
so a lot of times we can have a tree that has fruit that a ripe fruit that
are developing and then flowers. The star fruit flowers are actually edible too so
they're kind of tangy a little bit sweet you can eat the flowers off of the tree
also. Alright guys I need to get back to playing with my little man I hope you
enjoyed this starfruit video. If you haven't subscribed yet please go ahead
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