Tamarindus Species, Indian Date, Tamarind Tree

Add the sweet pod jam to a jar of water and store in fridge. Makes a nice tea.
No sugar needed for the sweet kind, unless you a...Read Morere into making stuff sugary.

I am from the US Virgin Islands and have eaten this fruit my entire life. We have the sweet type in our yard and the sours one all over t...Read Morehe Island. They like to grow at the beach, in the sand and hot sun. In San Antonio I started one from a seed that had already been made into what we call a Tamarind ball. I started it last winter (Dec 2011) in a pot under a light. In March it was about 2 - 3" tall. I took it down to Padre Island and put it in the sand (no dirt on the Barrier Islands) at my Beach house A month later it was 12" tall and now it's about 2' with branches coming out everywhere. It only gets water when I am down there.
For food when ripe(remove veins): boil them with water and lots of sugar to make the drink (can use little cinnamon if desired). Take the hard shell off and roll 5 seeds together with sugar to make Tamarind Balls. Boil with water and lots of sugar, as needed to make very thick paste for candy, put in small cups and let cool. All of these should be stored in the frig if not consuming right away. If you have sweet ones, less sugar is needed. The sour one are so sour they make your mouth water before you eat them if you have had them before. :-) One thing to note this fruit will help if you suffer from constipation, eat enough and you can have a colonoscopy.

I have a couple small tamarind seedlings. I expect that I will need to learn some kind of modified bonsai technique to keep them - we wi...Read Morell see.

To germinate seed - I took seeds from dried tamarind (from the supermarket!), cleaned them, dropped them into hard-boiling water for 3 minutes. I then allowed the water to cool to room temperature, and then dried them before planting. They germinated in about 10 days.

The pods are great to cook with - in Asian dishes, the pulp is a great addition to curries, chutneys and stir-fries. It's also GREAT sweetened - the flavor is a SOUR apple-meets-lemon flavor which - after adding sugar - makes for dynamite jams and preserves and agua fresca-type drinks.

The seedlings are quite attractive, with compound leaves that close in late afternoon, and open about an hour before sunrise. They like good light, and have medium water requirements, but otherwise are fairly low-maintainence. They will need to go into a deep pot early. As this is a legume (a member of the pea family), the roots are nitrogen-fixers, so don't overdo it with fertilizers.

My wife is Costa Rican and on our trip this past spring we brought seeds back with us. I am happy to report I have three seedlings growi...Read Moreng. I am curious to know if anyone in North Texas has had success growing these. I am concerned they will no survive the winter once planted in the ground.

To update my original post from 2010 fast forward to 2016. The three tamarindo "seedlings" are now to large to overwinter indoors. They live in our greenhouse during cold months. The seedlings are over 6' tall with canopies just as wide. They have not flowered or born fruit and are still grown in a large container. I have learned the trees are not even cold tolerant, much less frost/freeze tolerant. In my experience the trees are very reactive to climate changes as they shed leaves in response to sudden and dramatic tempature drops.

They have vibrant green, very dense foliage. They are also relatively drought tolerant and don't seem to mind Texas summer sun or heat.