Today I picked the two largest - or should I say - least small fruits that were on my bergamot tree...



Taste was acid and a little bitter, with a hard to describe aroma, somewhere in between lemon and lime. But not quite...
The scent was also very strong and indescribable. It's like I have it all over me now!

I tried to make my own Earl Grey tea by scraping some of the zest and putting it in a hot cup of tea. The Earl Grey aroma was there but by far not as strong as it is in the tea one buys in a store...

Hard to peel...


Cut in halves...

now you can enjoy the fruits of your labor! great job.

Very nice.

Nice Fruit Marc, thanks for sharing. I bet if you dry your peel it might work better for tea.

It looks like this year may turn out to be much less interesting than last year was. I'm only seeing flowers on a couple of plants...

- bearss lime: last spring no flowers, this spring I see flower buds emerging.
- blood clementine: last spring plenty of flowers, this spring only very few
- moro orange: last spring about 14 flowers that all set fruit. This spring I believe to have seen one bud so far...
- meyer lemon: plenty of flowers last spring and was the first to bloom. THis spring it hasn't even started to grow yet.
- buddha's hand: same as last spring. lost all of its leaves during the winter but is growing again and has a nice set of flowers, but these usually don't set any fruit.
- chinotto: starting to grow, but no sign of flowers yet.
- feminello lemon: growing and producing lots of flowers, of which some are already open.
- star ruby grapefruit: new growth but no sign of flowers yet
- salustiana orange: didn't produce any flowers last spring. Now has new growth with some flowers
- sanguinelli orange: new growth starting to emerge but no sign of flowers yet.
- bergamot: new growth with many flowers
- finger lime (citrus caviar): no sign of growth nor flowers yet
- yuzu: no sign of growth nor flowers yet

Meanwhile I have another plant on order... a valencia orange. My wife told me to order it, so what else could I do?
And some more plants may follow in the future. I'm still loking for...

- Citrus Aurantium (the "real" seville kind)
- Kaffir lime
- Citrus medica "Corsican"
- Some "real" blood clementine
- citrus aurantium bizarria
- ...

If you get a valencia, you want a Smith red valencia.

I thought there was a variegated valencia available in Europe as well.

for Kaffir Lime , I can give you someone in England who can sell to you Kaffir Lime

ok , Marc , good job there

Yes, and yes I have two different varieties.