Finger Limes

The Australian finger lime (citrus australasica) was identified and catalogued during the early colonisation of Australia as a potential commercially viable fruit. Catalogued and samples of fruit have been found in the Kew Economic Botany Collection, United Kingdom dating back to 1895. The finger lime is a member of the citrus family that is found in the wet sclerophyll forests abutting sub-tropical rainforests of northern New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland.

It grows naturally as a small understorey tree to a height somewhere between three and five metres. It is sparsely foliated and grows extremely slowly. It bears fruit after many years or when under stress. However, when grafted to a suitable rootstock the plant is transformed into a commercially viable citrus plant.

The finger lime presents with wide genetic diversity. Not only does the fruit vary significantly in size, colour, taste and shape but also the fruiting seasons are just as diverse. Grafted varieties tend to fruit earlier in the orchard than their relations in the wild.

The fruit has a myriad of pulp colours from green, yellow, pink, light red through to deep magenta. Individual spherical cells are compressed within the skin. When the skin is broken these cells burst forth while retaining their cellular composition. When bitten into, the individual cells burst open giving a wild infusion of tangy lime burst.

The finger lime fruit is simply excellent when used fresh from the orchard. However, it offers another remarkable profile to combat seasonality in that it can be frozen and thawed without any degeneration of pulp or cellular composition and flavour. Thus it is available all year round.

Courtesy of www.fingerlime.com