Q. Heidi, we have an abundance of star fruit and want to share some with my parents' neighbors. A great salsa can be made with star fruit and the usual: onion, tomato, lime juice, cilantro, etc.

But I heard somewhere that star fruit is not good for diabetics, and since lots of Island people, especially as we age, are prone to diabetes, we wanted to check this out.

— Mahalo, Mari Zane Hartman

A. Lynn Tsuruda of Frankie's Nursery, which sells fruit trees in Waimanalo, told me that star fruit, also known as carambola, is OK for diabetics — in moderation. There have been reports that people with kidney problems should not eat too much star fruit.

In addition to salsa, star fruit also makes a great juice and is Frankie's aunt's favorite juice.

Q. Heidi, growing up in Kane'ohe, we were always running around, exploring nature and looking for free food in the jungle. We used to love to climb up and pick and eat ripe egg fruit. I remember it fondly. Why are there no trees of this kind around anymore? Why aren't there keiki egg fruit trees popping up?

— Benjamin Zane

A. Egg fruit is a very big, old-fashioned tree. The fruit is 'ono when ripe and it looks like egg yolk inside. Some of the newer varieties are excellent.

When we lived on Kaua'i as apprentice gardeners at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in the 1970s, my roommate Erin Lee and I were always looking around the island for things to harvest and eat. We visited the old-fashioned 'Garden of Eden' nursery called Alexander's nursery in Wailua. It had egg fruit trees, and we collected a lot. We'd heard you could make a pumpkin-like pie of egg fruit. Lee is an exceptional cook and baker, and she whipped up a delicious-smelling and good-looking pie. We took it to a potluck party and it was a big hit with the hungry gardeners and surfers amidst their barbecue delights. Neither of us thought it was that great. It tasted kind of grainy, but it all disappeared!

Huge trees with fruit that is OK, not fabulous (like Hawaiian favorites mangoes, lychee, and papaya), tend to get cut down in modern Hawai'i. Since the seeds of egg fruit are embedded in the fruit, for keiki trees to pop up, either a bird needs to eat them and poop them out just right, or a human fruit grower needs to take the seeds out and plant them.

However, with changes in the world economy and the harsh reality of life in Hawai'i, more of us will look to the good old days of abundant fruit and food right in our neighborhoods, and we will be replanting various fruit, vegetables and edible and medicinal herbs. New, better varieties of egg fruit will be available on smaller trees.

Again I checked with our fruit experts in Waimanalo, and Tsuruda told me about some exciting new varieties of egg fruit. They are smallish trees (25 feet), and you can prune them to about 12 feet tall and carefully shape them to be easily pickable and right-sized for your garden.

A nice egg fruit variety comes from the Philippines. It's called called "Saludo," which means "to salute." The varieties "TREC" and "Fairchild" were developed in Florida. Tsuruda and Frankie Sekiya have been test-growing them at their fruit nursery, and sharing them with people for several years now.

You need two trees to get good fruit set with the Saludo variety and some seedlings. With TREC and Fairchild varieties, you only need one tree to get fruit. Tsuruda says besides eating these new 'ono varieties of egg fruit by themselves, you can make smoothies and pies that have a sweet-potato-like flavor.

Egg fruit trees are native to Central America. In Spanish, generally any round fruit is called sapote. Here in Hawai'i, old timers call any round fruit apple — for example mountain apple, pear apple (avocado), star apple (caimito, another tropical American fruit).

Other old-fashioned big trees, like mammee apples, sapote and chicle, might see a revival with some good horticultural research from the University of Hawai'i and food farmers, gourmet healthy cooks and restaurants, as well as all of us here in Hawai'i who love to eat fruit and other local produce. We can be growing and eating better than ever in our green, sustainable future.