Fun Fruit Trivia: Starfruit
Did you know that star fruit* has multiple harvest seasons? Each occurs months after the "blooming period," and can vary pretty widely. Though star fruit are often hard to find out of season, you should be able to get them in most well-stocked grocery stores between October and February.Let's make the most of the time we have with these tasty, antioxidant-rich fruits by exploring some trivia about them!Fun Fact #1: Star fruit is also called carambola. They don't need to be peeled or seeded -- just washed and eaten. They are beautiful when sliced thin and set over salads or fruit plates.Fun Fact #2: Star fruit "are also considered as herbs in many parts of Brazil, China, India, and Malaysia as well as in Taiwan, and widely used in Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine preparations as remedy for fever, sore throat, cough, asthma, chronic headache, and skin inflammations" (source).Fun Fact #3: Star fruit usually have 5 points, but some varieties can have seven or eight points instead.*A word of warning about star fruit: "Star-fruit is a good source of nutritionally and medicinally important natural products beneficial for human health. However, due to the oxalate and caramboxin content in the fruits, it is toxic to patients with renal problems" (source). So people on dialysis or who have kidney disease should not eat star fruit.References:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5357571/
- https://foodiosity.com/when-is-star-fruit-in-season/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carambola
- https://www.ehow.com/info_8482764_star-fruit-harvesting-season.html
- https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/school-nutrition/pdf/fact-sheet-star-fruit.pdf
Previous Installments:
