Pursuit of rare, exotic fruit leads thousands to Bradenton area sale

The love of starfruit can strike anyone at any time.

When she took her first bite of the rare fruit from Asia some time ago, Laura Brunet, director of the girls basketball program at Bradenton’s IMG Academy, was instantly made prisoner to its sweetness, and she has dreamed of having her own starfruit tree ever since.

“They taste like SweeTarts,” said Brunet, who lives in Ruskin in a house with a big backyard perfect for fruit trees.

Brunet’s crazy passion for the rare and exotic starfruit led her to come, with her farming partner, Ruskin’s Maria Edwards, to the 2016 Rare Fruit Sale at the Bradenton Area Convention Center on Sunday.

The pair, who had heard about the sale on Facebook, arrived at 8:30 a.m. for the 10 a.m. opening of the doors, which put them fifth in a line that was wrapped around the front of the convention center by 10 a.m. The sale ended up drawing more than 3,000 fruit fans, according to Betty Kearns, a member of the Manatee Rare Fruit Council.

“I wanted to make sure we got a starfruit tree,” Brunet said with a big grin when asked why they came so early.

About 90 minutes later, Brunet was looking at her own baby starfruit tree like a new mom. Her face reflected total ecstasy and happiness.

“I have a funny story about starfruit,” Brunet said. “I loved starfruit from the market and just bit into it whole like an apple, but I didn’t know it was actually shaped like a star. One day Maria was cutting one for me and I said, ‘Wow, that looks like a star!’ She said, ‘Why do you think they call it starfruit?’ I had no idea.”

Starfruit is native to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and India among other countries. The fruit has about five ridges running down its sides and, cut in cross section, it looks like a star.

First person in line goes for mango

Anthony Rodrigues and Barry Michael were first and second in line.

Rodrigues bought a sweet tart mango and an island gold starfruit. Michael got a fruit punch mango plant.

“It was amazing,” Michael said of the sale. “A lot of stuff in one place and lots of activity. I didn’t realize how many people would be poring over the plants. It was quite an experience.”

“Everyone was nice,” Rodrigues said. “Lots of good info. We asked a lot of questions. Everyone was informative.”

Vendors brought more than 5,000 plants into the Center with more than 125 varieties, Kearns said.

This story was originally published May 22, 2016 at 1:14 PM with the headline "Pursuit of rare, exotic fruit leads thousands to Bradenton area sale."