Saturday, September 25, 2010

The beginnings of a citrus fruit harvest

The rangpur limes are pretty hardy (thank goodness!) and have the most fruit of all our citrus trees at the moment, even though they are still very small trees. These were the trees I grew from seed some years ago and transplanted when we moved here. I have made a couple of batches of marmalade with them, and this has turned out very well. Fortunately, since G does not eat my jams and marmalades as a rule I have several jars still on my shelves! Yay.

While the ground is still soft, we may get around to planting a few more citrus, I think more mandarin trees would be a good idea as they are always a popular fruit, especially with litte Mr D.

Meanwhile, we have some fruit appearing for the first time on the 'Yen Ben' lemon, which is a type of Lisbon lemon. We do have a 'Meyer' lemon but it is pitifully small at the moment! However I do get regular gifts of lemons from G's aunty as most people with a lemon tree have way more lemons than they can use.

Now I'm off to hunt for that lemon pickle recipe......
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2 comments:

  1. DarrenSeptember 27, 2010 at 7:24 AM

    Wow! The Rangpurs look great! Just wondering, how many years was it for your trees to produce fruit from seed?
    Oh, and by the way...THANKS A LOT!! (said sarcastically) LOL
    I had not heard of the Yen Ben Lemon before, I know the Lisbon, But now I need to go see if I can find a Yen Ben!
    Keep up the good work!

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  2. Cabbage Tree FarmSeptember 27, 2010 at 9:25 AM

    Hi Darren
    It took about 4 years from seed to fruiting plant, although I guess 5 to get enough to use - 1kg was the first big harvest - not much at all but hey, enough to make a batch of marmalade!
    Yen Ben came to NZ from Australia in the 70s, and is grown here mainly for export. Good luck finding a plant.

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