The Sugar Apple, Anon, or Sweetsop -Annona Squamosa

Have you ever been lucky enough to enjoy a sugar apple? They look like WW II knobby hand grenades, and burst just like them when a ripe one hits the ground in August. Firm and all green, they suddenly soften over just a couple days, becoming mushy ripe, and fall to the ground (if no two or four legged bandits have seized them). Pick a near fully ripe one (below) from the tree, before it falls and goes "splat". When is it ripe? The green color becomes light yellow near the cracks between the bumpy parts, (the purplish fruits become pink at the cracks) and the fruit suddenly softens, from firm to almost a "bag of beans" softness, and soon it cracks open, to delight ants, bugs, and us. A Ripe and an Immature Sugar AppleRipe ones will fall apart in your hand, if you bounce them on your palm. Open it, smell the sweet aroma, and savor the smooth white flesh's taste. It's a lusciously rich sugary custard. Scoop out the flesh, and let your tongue seek out the subtle hints of pineapple and even lime. Mmmm! Use your tongue to separate the fruit from the oblong black seeds, then spit out the seeds, just like watermelon seeds. Enjoy the sweet finish, as you might savor a fine Sauterne, Icewine or Muscat, lingering on your lips... There! You've had your first one. See how quickly you suck down the next one! Wipe the glorious nectar off your lips and chin. If you live in USA gardening Zone 10 or 11, buy and plant a tree-you're hooked! My fruiting trees are 4 and 5 years old, grown from spindly foot tall plants, now 5 and 7 feet, respectively.
.
The fruit starts from a small flower, coming directly off a branch. There's no shortage of scale and other bugs sometimes.

I pinch the bugs (ugh!) to kill them during fruiting season, to avoid pesticides in the fruit. I don't pinch the rats.

.

Prune the tree back a lot, after harvest time, and the branches will grow back even fuller for the next season. They are related to the atemoya, cherimoya and guanabana (soursop).

A Garden of Tropical Delights - The Nam Doc Mai Mango and Carambola

Every morning I fondle my fruits-in July the mangoes, then the avocadoes, and now the sugar apples. It 's a race to harvest near- ripe fruit before it is claimed by the bandits- "palm squirrels" (aka rats), ducks or, more often, wandering gardeners. I don't mind any of the above getting a few fruits, however when an entire season's harvest disappears overnight, I'm pissed.

My Nam Duc Mai mangoes are now gone from the tree, and it is now avocado and sugar apple time.

The Nam Doc Mai are among the worlds best mangoes, with a distinctive slight "S" shape, or hook, to them.

Completely lacking fiber, richer and sweeter than almost any dessert, with sometimes subtle tartness, they are highly prized.A ripe mango has a fruity aroma at the stem, and is slightly soft. I don't rely much on color changes with this cultivar. You scoop out the tender ripe orange flesh with a spoon, or slice it into wedges, and greedily use your teeth-there's no fiber, and some are soft as pudding! One woman compares a mango's succulent dripping flesh to "edible orgasms", another to "a lover's luscious lips". Who can argue with mango lust?

The mango season starts with new red leaves and yellow flowers.

Egret, Wood Stork and Mango Flowers
Many 1 inch mangoes start, perhaps 20% make it to maturity on my tree. Wild Muscovy ducks take just a few sampling pecks out of a few dozen or so immature mangoes, letting the rest of the fruit go to waste, so I put up a feeble fence. Seems to keep in as many as it keeps out. Oh well. Gardeners and others pilfer and save Nam Doc's for themselves, instead of selling them to grocery stores-I've never seen one make it to a produce shelf.

Nam Docs & a Neighbor's Round Mango
I've had the Ataulfo and Alphonse in Mexico, and tried over 60 other delicious cultivars, or varieties grown in Florida, with some wonderfully similar Brams, Okrungs, and Florigons. I've sampled varieties from the Caribbean down to Colombia, tasted her exquisite sisters in the Philippines and Malaysia, and Lady Nam Doc Mai holds her crown high-a gloriously succulent Queen of all the Fruits.

There's a lusty side to these fruits, and a dark side as well. I've seen male ducks, or drakes, peck a mango, and go mate with a nearby female or hen, both thrashing in the water, hen near drowning in the frenzied mating process. I've seen a drake nibble a mango, then attack a rival drake in the lake, stand atop the rival, and drown the rival in minutes. Serious stuff, these mangoes. We're talking aphrodisiacal mango lust, unbridled passions, and hot blooded murder..this is more than catnip to a kitty, here.
Buy a grafted mango tree, for best results. Water your tree as little as needed during fruit season, or you'll have a diluted taste to the fruit. My trees need fertilizer at least twice a year, as Florida's sandy soil needs some help. Don't fertilize during fruiting time, or the plant grows leaves and roots, instead of just succulent fruit.

My friends Raquel and Fred have a carambola tree that just keeps putting out several hundred tart green star-shaped fruits, that ripen into sweet orange stars. There's a touch of tartness at the outer tips or ribs of the stars, the last part to turn from green to orange. The fruit become much sweeter when allowed to turn their flesh and ribs completely to a rich orange, while on the tree. Competition with insects and two legged bandits wandering in the wee hours often precludes that optimal tree ripening and flavor. Juice them or eat them fresh. Aaaah!

Ay Carambola, That Jaden Can Cook!

Carambolas, Eden Stars Carambola Wine, Honey and Fage Yogurt
I had a bounty of carambolas, or star fruits, from a friends tree, and rather than eat them all just fresh, juice dripping down my chin, I figured I'd transcend my Cro-Magnon manners, and emailed Jaden of Steamy Kitchen http://steamykitchen.com/ for some carambola suggestions. Jaden is a Florida food writer/blogger and great photographer, specializing in modern Asian cooking. She emailed back "Just slice, brush with honey, sprinkle with cardamom and stick them under the broiler. Great paired with greek yogurt (try Fage found at Publix)". My kind of instructions! 20 minutes later, I had the yogurt and freshly ground pungent cardamom, and cracked open a gift of honey. I sliced the carambolas, barely green at the tips, popped out the seeds, and gobbled up a few fresh slices before gathering up the strength to carry on.
I put 'em on aluminum foil, drizzled honey on all, and tried curry powder on two rows, and powdered cardamon on the rest, broiled for 5", then let them sit in hot oven for 5" more, to soften.

Meanwhile, I mixed some honey and a touch of vanilla extract into the delicious yogurt, and readied for the taste test. Well, first, most of the honey slid off the sides while broiling, so I added a little more warmed honey. The ones with curry were horrible, and the ones with Jaden's cardamon, well, were all gone before they cooled! As is, or dipped with the yougurt, a winner! And no I didn't crack open the Eden Carambola Wine-some other time, maybe when Norman Love's chocolate Hydra rears it's scrumptious heads?

Ta-da! Served on Celadon in Jaden's honor
Next time, maybe a carambola upside down cake, or Carambola tart Tatin? Let me wash my chin off, and think about it!