Food and Cooking @beehaw.org TheCalzoneMan @beehaw.org 2y ago

Finger Limes

Finger limes are an unusual fruit that has caviar-like flesh and pops in your mouth. They come in all kinds of interior colors, and sound amazing. I've been trying to find some in California, but they're native to Australia and I haven't seen any even in specialty stores. Does anyone know where I might find them here?

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I hit Google and found a few farms in California that grow them. You could probably just call them and ask them who distributes their crops.

https://fig-tree-farms.com/index.html

https://www.pearsonranch.com/buy-finger-limes-online/

https://www.shanleyfarms.com/

It also sounds like the harvest is during the autumn/winter, based on the notes on the first one, so they'd be out-of-season now, so I doubt that you could get them grown in California anyway until late in the year. I have no idea whether they ship well, but if so, you're probably stuck looking for imports if you want them prior to that.

If you have an appropriate place to grow them, you might save the seeds from one if you can get one and plant them and have a tree yourself. It sounds like they do grow from seed (not like, say, the Hass avocado).

EDIT: One more trick. It's not as nice an interface for actually shopping as, say, Amazon or the like, but if you want to find something truly esoteric that you cannot find anywhere else, Google Shopping indexes a ludicrous number of retailer sites. My first search there found:

saplings on Etsy

An IMHO ludicrously-expensive vendor in Miami that allows one to pre-order them for when they come into season (confirming my guess that they are out of season).

Someone on Amazon selling seeds

...and a bunch more hits.
- This is an amazingly thoughtful response and reminds me why I chose the Fediverse as my go-to. Thank you.
- Winter harvest makes sense, most citrus fruits are mid-winter. Guess I'll have to wait to add them to my cocktails :( . Appreciate the in-depth dive!
- Four Winds sells the trees and is a reputable citrus grower: https://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/products/australian-finger-lime-trees
kinda wonder wat finger lime ice cream taste like ?
This is probably the first time I hear the words "they're native to Australia" and I don't think "oh, thank God".
- Finger limes aren’t poisonous.
  
  They’re venomous.
Sure, they are citrus caviar and the pulp looks great on a plate. And it's wonderful to get to be 50 years old and taste something new.

But don't expect too much.
- where are you, and how far/how did your finger limes travel to get to you? i have some in my garden (and the conditions here arent even ideal, I just really wanted them) and theyre delicious!
Haha, I thought it was a joke about you eating some plastic decor fruits. Man was I flabbergasted when I saw that it is a real fruit! Fascinating!

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