Finger Limes
Every so often a fabulous new food plant comes along but not often like this one.
It’s not the most beautiful tree in the world, it’s got fiendishly sharp thorns and odd looking fruit. It’s an Australian Native Finger Lime, they’re called Finger Lime because of the finger shape of the fruit. These have by far the best lime flavour of any of the citrus family and they’re much hardier.
These plants will take more cold weather than most of the citruses and they’re native to Australia. The fruit is 5-10cm long and 1-2cm diameter, and skins can be green, red, purple, yellow or black.
When you cut them open, the fruit of translucent spheres resembles caviar, the colour of the pearls can vary from pink to limey-green or palest champagne, depending on the variety and the climate in which they are grown. Each one of the little flavour bombs has the most intense and wonderful lime flavour, great for garnishing hors d’oeuvres, Asian salads, cooking with fish, desserts etc.
Australian Native Finger Limes grow best in full sun and has the same climatic tolerances as normal citrus.
Finger Lime Recipes
We’ve made a tasty dessert using Australian Native Finger Limes, you simply get a glass, line the bottom with chopped walnuts, add a layer of yoghurt and some fresh blueberries then raspberries, a bit more yoghurt and some more walnuts, and top with the tangy pearls of Finger Lime. A very tasty, fresh dessert.
Using Finger Lime in your hors d’oeuvres will make them pop! You’ve got your classic cracker biscuit, then some coriander, smoked salmon, a little bit of dill then top with some Finger Lime fruit – it explodes with the beautiful lime flavour.
