The flowers do smell awesome! (sweet cherry)... Kristin needs to be made self fertile! The tree is a monster when it comes to surviving cold temps. I may just make a yearly trek to Door County and get my sweet cherry fix! Although last year 100% of the crop was destroyed. This year could be a bumper crop...

This one doesn't use mayonnaise or ketchup but it is out of this world! Tangy and sweet/sour. The salad looks even better if you finely cut some leek ...the top green part....into needle like shreds and fry them a little and top the salad with them, like this: Orange-Balsamic Dressing & Spinach Salad (pic) Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Sat, Apr 1, 06 at 7:02 If you like raw spinach salad and saw the photos of the one that my friend Anne and I have now had twice at the stable restaurant lately you may be interested in the wonderful orange & balsamic dressing that made it so delicious. We were trying to figure out what was in it and so I searched on the web for something similar. I found several and since I wanted to show my DH how good it was I tried out one variation of the dressing for yesterday's lunch, adding the extra ingredients which were in the restaurant version. I didn't have fresh spinach but did have a ruby-edged lettuce and some wild arugula (aka rocket, rucola, rucula) as well as some very juicy oranges, pine nuts, raisins and even the end of a package of bacon. So here's what I made with the salad ingredients I had on hand. It came out tasting almost identical to the restaurant dressing and Wolf raved over it. It's definitely a keeper and I will be making this one again. baby spinach & ruby-edged lettuce for 4 servings* For 1 1/2 cups dressing, enough for 4 salad servings: 3/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice 2 TBS balsamic vinegar 1 TBS red wine vinegar 3 TBS grated orange peel 2 teasp brown sugar 1 teasp ground cumin 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil salt & pepper to taste garnish: 2 TBS sultana raisins 2 TBS pinenuts 3 strips of bacon, diced 1. Fry bacon bits until crisp. Drain on paper and put aside. 2. Put into a blender the orange juice and zest, the two vinegars, brown sugar and cumin and blend for a few moments. 3. Slowly add the olive oil while blending, then salt & pepper to taste 4. Put half the dressing into your salad bowl and add all the greens, mixing and turning with two large spoons until greens are well coated 5. Mix in the pine nuts, raisins and bacon bits 6. Pile onto serving plates and drizzle a little more dressing on top. * Also good is spinach with red onion rings and mandarin orange slices. SharonCb

In my neighborhood, I can buy Bitter/Sour Orange all year round, as Asians and Hispanics both use them in cuisine. (I don't think Seville necessarily refers to a different variety but may be wrong.) They may have a peak season one place or another, but somehow they manage to stock their supply constantly. They are, as the name implies, SOUR, I think more bitter than Calamondins. I do use them them in mojo marinades (with beef, chicken or duck). What I like about the species itself is that it seems so robust, more than sweet oranges in my opinion. Each fruit comes FILLED with numerous seeds and they are truly easy from seed. I probably have a dozen plants and have given some away as I am always planting the seeds from the fresh fruit. They are large enough to flower and fruit this year so fingers crossed.

Yes, enablers for sure!! Lol. Susanne, the Nagami has a strong flavor that is not for the faint of heart. I equate it to eating a ray of sunshine ;-). My daughter and husband love them and probably ate 90% of the large load on my two trees. I ate some, but I did throw some in smoothies (they are very healthy). I have also seen recipes for pies that look good. I expect a large crop this year from my two large bushes. They are beautiful trees - especially when loaded with fruit. I have not tasted any other kumquat so I have no reference point. I will try to hold off and wait for Harris for the bergamot. My trees from Harris have grown very well. You guys are tempting me so much....:-)