The following is a post by my sister Christi on how to make star fruit jam. She shared her success with me and I asked her if she’d write up a post with her recipe. The star fruit came from this beautiful tree planted in The Great South Florida Food Forest Project.

I looked at our beautiful star fruit tree and thought, “there are entirely too many star fruit to eat before they go bad.”

Channeling my genius brother David the Good, I thought “how could I let these sweet little fruits go to waste? David The Good would find a way to preserve them… that’s it!”

So, preserve them I did! I picked a bucket full of star fruit and washed them with the care of a newborn babe. But before I get ahead of myself, here is the recipe and the play by play of how to make star fruit jam, or star fruit butter.

To me the texture was more like apple butter, but delicious nonetheless.

Star Fruit Jam Recipe:

•8 1/2 cups of fresh star fruit

•3 cups of sugar

•1/8 cup of vanilla

• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

• 2 tablespoon of Cinnamon (I also added nutmeg and a some all spice)

• 1 tablespoon of butter

HOW TO MAKE STAR FRUIT JAM

1. Pick star fruit and wash with the utmost care.

2. Apologetically cut the fruit: First, cut off the ends. Second, cut the peaks of each ridge on the fruit. Third, cut the remainder into roughly ½ inch cubes, removing the seeds as you go.

3. Boil the chunks in 4 cups of water or just add enough water until the Starfruit is covered.

4. Add sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, and vanilla.

5. Boil until the star fruit slices are soft

6. Some people after boiling will leave the star fruit over night. I didn’t do this but probably will next time.

7. Strain out excess water and heat put star fruit into a smaller bowl. Heat and add 1 tablespoon of butter.

8. Smash the star fruit over heat until it starts to look like a more cohesive concoction.

9. Blend remaining mixture in blender until it looks like baby food.

10. Strain out any excess water.

11. Put in recycled jar(s) and seal tightly

12. Let star fruit jam rest for 4 days before opening and eating

The star fruit jam/butter out to be delightful. I made three small canisters with this recipe.

So next time you have too much star fruit to eat— consider making jam! It’s pretty jam good. I don’t know what is with me and working with foods that rhyme with yam 😆.

Until next time!

Thanks, Christi. Looks delicious. You can read Christi’s blog here.

Note: you could almost certainly seal jars of homemade star fruit jam in a water bath – I’ve been canning for years and if I had a ton of star fruit, I might just go ahead and put them away for the holidays by canning. If you have not canned before, this book is the standard. As for foods that rhyme with yam – you need to see Yamfit, starring Christi – if you haven’t already.

Additional note: if you have kidney issues or have had kidney stones in the past, you should avoid eating star fruit as the fruit is very high in oxalic acid.