Summer Citrus

Citrus is about the last kind of fruit tree I would recommend in this era of greening and a host of other citrus challenges. But if I did, it would be one of my favorite uncommon fruit trees: the limequat.

As the name suggests, the limequat is a hybrid of (key) lime and kumquat. It's a very small tree, said to grow up to 12 feet but easily maintained smaller. Nearly everbearing, its fruit can replace lemon or lime in most any recipe. Thanks to its kumquat parent, it's more cold-tolerant than lime, and has edible peel. It's a fast and prolific bearer, so one can hope for quite a bit of production before the grim citrus reaper comes calling. My own limequat, pictured here, is in a fair amount of shade and not irrigated, but it is reasonably healthy and productive.

Limequats were developed in 1909 by Dr. Walter T. Swingle, and there are three cultivars: Eustis, Lakeland, and Tavares. The first two were different seeds from the same parent, with Lakeland producing slightly larger fruit. Tavares is distinguished by its pink blossoms. Also, Lakeland is nearly thornless.

Here in mid-summer, my lemon and lime trees are months from fruiting. But a few days ago I collected twenty limequat fruit, which produced a half cup of limequat juice. Adding a cup of water, an ounce and a half of dates, three ounces of raw, unsalted pistachio meats, a heaping tablespoon of nutritional yeast, a clove of garlic, and a tablespoon or two of Dijon mustard, my high-horsepower blender produced a batch of my favorite salad dressing. It's not to everyone's taste, to be sure, but in my book it more than justifies the minimal effort of caring for my limequat tree.