Wootens Produce of Kauai is celebrating its 18th year of farming on Kauai. John’s farming practices are based on what he learned over 50 years ago when he read Robert Rodale’s Organic Gardening & Farming Magazine. What’s growing: Avocados, arugula,
Wootens Produce of Kauai is celebrating its 18th year of farming on Kauai. John’s farming practices are based on what he learned over 50 years ago when he read Robert Rodale’s Organic Gardening & Farming Magazine.
What’s growing:
Avocados, arugula, atamoya, bananas, basil, beets, bok choy, breadfruit, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, chard, chicu, cilantro, coconuts, cucumbers, curry leaves, dill, egg fruit, eggplant, fennel, ginger, hot peppers, jackfruit, kale, lemons, limes, longan, radish, rambutan, papayas, parsley, Indian curry leaf, lettuce, mangos, mint, mizuna, mountain apple, soursop, star apple, tomatoes, tot soi, turnips and turmeric.
Star Apple
Dark purple and light green are the two varieties of star fruit. Both have soft, rich, creamy, milky, sweet pulp surrounding 6 to 11 gelatinous seed cells. When cut through the center the shape of an asterisk or many-pointed star gives the fruit its common English name.
Star apple also goes by the name of goldenleaf tree (English), caimito, estrella, caimo morado, caimito maduraverde (Spanish), cainito, ajara (Portuguese), caimite and caimitier (French). The Chinese in Singapore call it “chicle durian.” The tree’s leaves are glossy and dark green with matte, bronze-colored undersides. Relatives of the star apple are mamey sapote, green sapote, abiu, and canistel.
Season:
“It’s hard to predict their season,” says John Wooten. “They’re off and on at various times, but mostly on in the spring or early summer.”
Right now, they are prolific at the farmers markets.
What to look for:
Select deep burgundy or light green fruit with the stem attached. Fruit must be harvested by hand and clipped from the stem in order to avoid damage and rot. They should be slightly soft to the touch. When fully ripe, the skin goes from shiny to dull and a bit wrinkled. Unripe fruit are astringent and inedible due to the gummy latex found in the flesh.
Storage:
Once mature fruit are picked, they may be allowed to fully ripen at room temperature. Once ripe, fruit may be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for a few days. They can also be eaten when frozen.
Tip:
While at the Wooten’s farm, I took a picture of a green star apple in John’s hand and posted it to the Tasting Kauai Facebook page. Ken Love, president of the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers commented, “They have a lot of latex when half ripe and if you set out a cut piece it can also be a fly trap. I’ve seen whole fruit move because of the flies stuck in the latex.”
Preparation:
Generally, the fruit is eaten fresh, and preferably chilled, although it may be an ingredient in fruit salads and sorbets. Cutting the fruit transversely and then gently separating the two halves is an easy way to open the fruit. The pulp then may be spooned out, leaving the inedible rubbery seed-cells, seeds, and core. The peel and rind of ripe star apple are inedible.
A combination of the chopped flesh with that of mango, citrus, pineapple, other fruits and coconut water is frozen and served as Jamaica Fruit Salad Ice. Bolivians parboil the edible portion, and also prepare it as a decoction. An emulsion of the slightly bitter seed kernels is used to make imitation almond milk, nougats and other confections.
Health benefits:
Star apples contain moderate amounts of calcium, phosphorus, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and are a good source of antioxidants. The ripe fruit, because of its mucilaginous character, is eaten to sooth inflammation in laryngitis and pneumonia. It is given as a treatment for diabetes mellitus, and a decoction is gargled to relieve angina.
Wootens Produce of Kauai can be found at:
Grocery: Vim and Vigor, Papaya’s Natural Foods and Cafe, Hoku Foods Natural Market, Harvest Market. Farmers Market: Kapaa Wednesdays at 3 p.m. Restaurants: Kintaro, The Garden Cafe. For custom orders, (minimum $10) call 823-6807
• Marta Lane, a food writer on Kauai since 2010, offers farm to fork food tours and is the author of Tasting Kauai: Restaurants – From Food Trucks to Fine Dining, A Guide to Eating Well on the Garden Island. Info: TastingKauai.com.
