The season when carambola ripens

Carambola trees typically ripen around July and last until about September according to the lunar calendar. These trees are either cultivated or propagated from fallen fruit, and are common in the Mekong Delta provinces. Perhaps due to a lack of fully realized economic value, carambola trees are no longer as prevalent as they once were. However, along country roads, beside houses, and in the yards of families in the freshwater areas of Ca Mau province, some still grow carambola trees for ornamental purposes, or for their children and grandchildren to gather and pick the fruit when they return home during the carambola ripening season.

• The street is resplendent with portulaca flowers.

Mature carambola fruits are dark green, turning lighter green when ripe, and have an astringent and sour taste. Mature carambola fruits are often eaten with salt and chili; or to reduce the sourness and astringency, people prepare them by cutting and slitting each fruit with a knife, blanching them briefly in salt water, or crushing them on a cutting board to squeeze out the sour juice, then processing them into quite attractive snacks, such as candied carambola, carambola shaken with salt and chili, carambola pickled in salt and chili...

For many children in rural areas of the Mekong Delta from the 1980s generation and earlier, the ripening season of the carambola fruit will be a beautiful part of their childhood memories!

Ms. Phan Thi Thuy Mo, from Ba Dieu hamlet, Ly Van Lam commune, Ca Mau city, is harvesting carambola from her garden.

Currently, the Thai variety of carambola is widely cultivated because it has the advantage of a short trunk, larger fruit, and more flesh compared to the previous carambola variety.

Choose large, ripe carambola fruits, remove the stems, and prepare them before making them into snacks.

Candied carambola.

Candied carambola has a sweet and sour taste, and eating it with chili salt enhances the flavor of this snack.

Loan Phuong performed

Source: https://baocamau.vn/mua-ca-na-chin-ro-a33764.html