this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2025
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Wood sorrel is an interesting case. In the US, we don't commonly eat our native wood sorrel, i.e. the thing that looks like clover. But we do eat starfruit. Starfruit is also a type of wood sorrel, just one that has a much larger, sweeter fruit, that's been selectively bred for agriculture. But if you look at the fruits of our native plant, they do look like tiny starfruit! link
They're still tasty. They're very tart, but with no sweetness. They could be good to top a salad. But you'd have to pick hundreds of them to get as much food as you get from one starfruit, and it wouldn't be as tasty as a fruit. Like eating a lemon instead of an orange.
That said, I still love them! The leaves and stems also have a good taste. They're everywhere and have a lovely burst of flavor. Just be careful if you have kidney stones or kidney disease, any kind of wood sorrel - including starfruit - has oxalic acid which can be tough on kidneys.
Toxic web.
Got the same in the UK, had to disable uBlock for Cloudflare to let me through.