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Gardening in Oz

wild citrus

13 years ago

Many experts offer the opinion that the common garden citruses are all cultivated varieties of the same species, with the possible exception of cumquats and pomelos. Seed raised plants are considered substandard and ignored, but with the rising use of citrus fruits in cooking, perhaps they need to be reviewed. I have on my Gold Coast Hinterland property two such plants producing fruit. One has fruit that look like an overgrown cumquat, that taste like a cross between a cumquat and a mandarin. The other looks and tastes like a cross between a grapefruit and an orange. They are not good eating in their natural state.

My wife is an excellent cook with a willingness to experiment. She has made many delicious dishes using these b**tard fruits in preference to eating citruses, but tonight she should have won the Nobel prize for cooking, if there was one. She cooked duck a l'orange, but using one of each of the above instead of conventional orange. It was better than any professional duck a l'orange I have ever tasted.

I think our plant breeders should take another look at the b**tards of the citrus family, and try to develope special citrus fruits for cooking.

PS apologies for the asterisks, but garden web would not accept the unedited words

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Comments (2)

alisonoz_gw
13 years ago
You're right in that a lot of citrus is pretty tasteless even for juicing, grown for transportability and convenience. Weren't there stories of growers being forced to bulldoze their orchards to replace with varieties the big market players wanted - or risk missing out to Californian imports?
When I was a kid we had a myer lemon in the backyard that was a thorny blighter and seed-grown and bitter as could be, raw, but bore such big juicy fruit that it provided us and half the street with fruit for jams,curds and cake fillings - and stored for ages.
My mum still makes a little jam, and we were disappointed in the quality of oranges I bought recently - they were thick-skinned & very dry fleshed.
I still like Tangelos for that more intense flavour.
Seem to be less folk like you growing their own -maybe there would be enough money for research if such plants were patio pot material, there seems to be less interest in gardening/home production these days and less folk with the room for trees.
(Tony- congrats to your wife - hope all well with you, I don't get much forum time these days - cheers, alison)
wollemia_TC
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for your kind comments, Alison. Since my last posting, my wife has found more and more uses for the b**tard and it is now the most used fruit in her kitchen. I'm beginning to think I should patent it - are you au fait with patent law? I may need such a one! It could be the key to a comfortable retirement.
Best regards, Tony
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Hi everyone....I am so sorry...I never followed up on this post!!!!! Those bugs you said you've seen could be adult lace wing bugs. They are rather cute and boy, than can devour any bad insect on your trees, especially mites!!! In fact you can buy them as good natural predators.. yahoo!!! I actually will be bringing my plants in soon..:-(, like you said toni, this way they will adjust to indoor conditions better now that I still keep my windows open. I really hate the thought of bringing them in though. Have you all noticed how much bigger they all get when it comes times to bring them in? They make my south facing windows even smaller everytime!! Now I think I will only have room for one tree instead of three to each window like last year...Boy do they grow fast outdoors. It like when a kid goes through puberty...LOL Binion, I hear what your saying. Who would of thought to look for an apartment with good sun until you need it ha? Can you all feel the summer just about to drop out of sight! I am so sad about it. Seems like the sun is dropping at a lower angle in the sky faster than you can blink your eye! and boy is it getting darker fast all of a sudden earlier at night! Every year I keep saying I am going to move to a warmer climate,where you get at least 12 hours of sunlight, and every year I seem to be stuck up here in good old New England!!! Time is flying by so fast, I already miss those nice warm sunny humid days. I bet my trees do to. I have been spraying them for the past 2 weeks, prepping them for no pests as they come indoors....My goal is not to complain one bit to you all about pests this winter.. We'll see!!Lol I just hope I can provide enough lite for them, or at least afford to. I wish so much I had a heated greenhouse, even a small one. Affordable. They are so expensive! Anyways, I miss you all. What ever happened to Al????? Where has he been? Sure we will be talking alot more as winter approaches. What else do we have to do anyways? lolol Take care!!! Mike
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