Bilimbi! What are they good for?

[OrchidIslander]

Absolutely nothing?

Our house came with a grove of Bilimbi trees. This year the trees have produced quite a crop of the fruit, or whatever they are.

Raw, they are somewhat tart.

Not sure what one would do with them, or if they have any redeeming qualities at all.

Anyone in the know regarding Bilimbi?

[Carey]

I have one tree that produces wayyy too many fruit....A GROVE??? Yikes! here is what I have found (but still have way too many with my one tree)

they are great in papaya salad (crisp & tart to the papaya sweet)
they make a good candy, sliced & boiled in simple syrup
they take off rust on the machete blade (& most anything else - but you must oil the blade after)
the juice makes a good "lemonade'
Good tartener for smoothies, have some frozen for a sweet/tart banana bilimbi papaya smoothie
any fish or seafood soup with a handful of bilimbi is ono!
make sweet/sour pickles with bilimbi & a sweet pickle (I like bread & butter) recipe
make a good chutney with bilimbi pickles

Okay, all of that takes care of a hundred or so of my crop...ie, barely a bent!

Oh they are a medicinal plant, good for some things & a diuretic

here are some links I collected a few years ago:
BILIMBI
RECIPES
http://www.aayisrecipes.com/2008/07/06/b...la-nonche/

http://indonesia-eats.blogspot.com/search?q=bilimbi

http://ile-maurice.tripod.com/bilimbi.htm

GENERAL BILIMBI INFO
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/bilimbi.html

http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/fruit%20pages/bilimbi.htm

http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/bilimbi_pictures.htm

Updated the links! & found this wine recipe...maybe opoen a winery???
http://www.food.com/recipe/bilimbi-wine-57485

[terracore]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Carey

I have one tree that produces wayyy too many fruit....A GROVE??? Yikes! here is what I have found (but still have way too many with my one tree)

they are great in papaya salad (crisp & tart to the papaya sweet)
they make a good candy, sliced & boiled in simple syrup
they take off rust on the machete blade (& most anything else - but you must oil the blade after)
the juice makes a good "lemonade'
Good tartener for smoothies, have some frozen for a sweet/tart banana bilimbi papaya smoothie
any fish or seafood soup with a handful of bilimbi is ono!
make sweet/sour pickles with bilimbi & a sweet pickle (I like bread & butter) recipe
make a good chutney with bilimbi pickles

Okay, all of that takes care of a hundred or so of my crop...ie, barely a bent!

Oh they are a medicinal plant, good for some things & a diuretic

here are some links I collected a few years ago:
BILIMBI
RECIPES
http://www.aayisrecipes.com/2008/07/06/b...la-nonche/

http://indonesia-eats.blogspot.com/search?q=bilimbi

http://ile-maurice.tripod.com/bilimbi.htm

GENERAL BILIMBI INFO
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/bilimbi.html

http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/fruit%20pages/bilimbi.htm

http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/bilimbi_pictures.htm

Updated the links! & found this wine recipe...maybe opoen a winery???
http://www.food.com/recipe/bilimbi-wine-57485

---

wiki says

In the Philippines, the leaves serve as a paste on itches, swelling, rheumatism, mumps or skin eruptions. Elsewhere, they are used for bites of poisonous creatures. A leaf infusion is used as an after-birth tonic, while the flower infusion is used for thrush, cold, and cough. Malaysians use fermented or fresh bilimbi leaves to treat venereal diseases. In French Guiana, syrup made from the fruit is used to treat inflammatory conditions. To date there is no scientific evidence to confirm effectiveness for such uses.

In some villages in the Thiruvananthapuram district of India, the fruit of the bilimbi was used in folk medicine to control obesity. This led to further studies on its antihyperlipidemic properties.[3][4]