TWIST & shout
GREEN, VIBRANT, TART AND JUICY LIMES ARE A JOY TO GROW
When we bought this property – a producing orchard – I didn’t even know what variety our lime trees were. All I knew was that they were round and green, fetched $20 a kilo at the beginning of the season and smelled amazing when I ran over them with the lawn mower.
It turned out they were Tahitian limes and, for a few seasons, we picked and sold them. Picking limes is a pleasant occupation but it wasn’t what we wanted to do with our lives and anyway, we needed the space for the garden we planned to create.
Now we have the garden and the last of the limes are part of an orchard of plums, figs, feijoas, apples, guava, tangelos, lemons, nectarines and peaches.
By good luck, rather than good horticulture, the lime trees are bulletproof. They’re also multi-taskers – at the moment, they are bearing blossom, last season’s fruit and this season’s fruit. Just as well it’s still warm enough to drink the odd margarita.
My new lime tree was going to be a Mexican Key Lime, whose claim to fame is that it’s the main flavouring ingredient for the famous Key Lime Pie.
But when I started checking out what was available, I discovered all sorts of varieties and lime crosses I’d never met before.
If you don’t have a lot of room for different kinds of citrus, get this: Tahitian limes and Meyer lemons on the same tree. The Meyer lemon is a very reliable variety that produces heavy crops, and the Tahitian lime is, as I said, bulletproof. All you need for this one (or these two, to be more precise) is a sunny position in well-drained soil.
A Limequat Eustis will be high on my list for a new tree. As you’d expect, it’s a cross between a lime and a kumquat, and it produces good crops of oval-shaped lemon fruit. You can grow it in the garden or in a container, provided you water it regularly. I figure it will be the perfect variation to my lime/tangelo curd recipe and
I’ll only need one type of fruit. Plus, it’s pip-less and you can eat the skin. Heaven!
Lime Rangpur is the result of an identity crises – it tastes like a lime but looks like a mandarin. As the name suggests, it’s from India and is a vigorous grower with light green foliage and very few thorns. If you make marmalade, this is your baby.
The name Lime Kusaie intrigued me so I checked it out. It originated in India but headed off to Hawaii in the late 1800s and became a common garden plant there. It’s more tolerant of the cold than many other varieties, but still needs protection from harsh frosts. The flowers have a pink tinge, the fruit is a deep yellow when ripe and is easy to peel. What’s not to love?
You’d have to choose a Lime Sublime just for its name, surely. Perfect for a small garden or a balcony, it’s a good cooking lime, and great for flavouring and decorating drinks.