http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2012/01/persian_sweet_lemons.php

What's In Season at the Farmers Markets: Persian Sweet Limes (or Lemons)
By Felicia Friesema Wed., Jan. 25 2012 at 8:23 AM


Felicia Friesema
Sweet lemons from Jeanne Davis

"This lemon will cure that cough of yours," advised a fellow market-goer. It turned out that her motherly advice wasn't simply anecdotal. The Sweet Lemon, or Sweet Lime depending on who you talk to, is incredibly high in Vitamin C and has been a favorite of Mediterranean and Persian cultures for centuries for that very reason.

Native to Southeast Asia, the Sweet Lemon suffers from a bit of an identity crisis here in the states. The "true" sweet lemon, genetically speaking, is actually quite difficult to come by. Genetic clones of the true sweet lemon -- a mutant strain off of other true lemons like Eureka -- are occasionally available through UC Riverside's Citrus Clonal Protection Program, but on a very limited basis and certainly not for commercial production. What we usually find at market stalls is genetically separate from the sweet lemon and even has a different species name: Citrus limettoiodes. The trip from Southeast Asia to Persia to the U.S. muddied the translation of the common name, but it's easily identifiable, especially after an eye-opening taste.

Despite its name, the sweet lemon isn't especially loaded with sugar. It just lacks any kind of acidity, making whatever available sugar in the pulp pop, since it's not competing with anything. The common description of the fruit is often relegated to insipid and dull, but that's mostly when comparing to other citrus. On its own merits, the sweet lemon has a clean and slightly floral fragrance, concentrated -- as with most lemons -- in the rind. The pulp is very mild and succulent. It's a squat, palm-sized fruit, nearly flat at the stem end and with a small nipple on the blossom side. And it does have seeds, few or many depending on the variety you get.

Robin Smith at Mud Creek Ranch (Santa Paula) sells the fruit as Persian sweet limes at the Ojai, Hollywood, Santa Monica (Wednesday) and Santa Barbara farmers markets. Jeanne Davis (Fallbrook) sells a slightly larger variety at her stands at the Beverly Hills and Hollywood farmers markets. Both have said they'll have the sweet limes/lemons well into spring.

"The customers who love it most say it cures everything," said Davis. "But I think it just tastes good."


Felicia Friesema
Persian sweet limes from Mud Creek Ranch

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/2012/01/persian-sweet-lemon.html

Persian lemon trees, a sweetly scented treat
January 4, 2012 | 8:44 am


Photo, top: Emily Taefi, 11-year-old granddaughter of Jamshid Taefi, takes in the scent of a
Persian sweet lemon in her grandfather's garden in Diamond Bar.
Photo credit: Ann Summa

When she was 15, Azadeh Taefi started a seed from a store-bought Persian sweet lemon, limu shirin. It sprouted on the balcony of the family’s apartment, but Taefi never expected it would bear fruit. That required grafting, her mom told her. Eight years ago Taefi's father, Jamshid, put the seedling into the ground behind their San Dimas house. With all-day sun, the plant flourished -- and began producing fruit after a few years. It started slowly but now delivers two harvests a year.

Also known as sweet lime, the fruit of the plant (botanical name Citrus limetta) is unlike the lemons or limes most people know. It’s as sweet as an orange but without the acidity, and the greenish pulpy flesh exudes a bouquet of rose water, a flavor in the nose more than on the tongue. The fruit looks like a Meyer lemon, and when the thin rind is rubbed, it releases a sweet aroma. Around kitchen tables in Iran, it's ubiquitous from fall until spring, often used at any sign of a cold or cough. It turns sour within an hour of cutting, so it has to be fresh. Most people simply suck the juice from a cut section, sometimes with tea.

“I eat it like an orange, the whole thing except the rind,” Azadeh said.
Jamshid feeds his tree twice a year. Like most citrus in Southern California, his sweet lemon grows easily. But the owner of the Paradise Nursery in Chatsworth, Majid Jahanbin, said Persian sweet lemon trees grown from seed can thrive and be productive until hit with a fungus that splits the bark. There’s no cure, he said. A fungicide may slow down the disease, but the tree will die.

That’s why Persian sweet lemon trees are often sold grafted, he said, sometimes on the root stock of a sour orange. A grafted tree will yield fruit a year or so after it’s planted in the ground, and if kept happy the tree will live and produce fruit for decades.

Paradise Nursery also used to sell the Palestine sweet lime, similar in taste but with a stronger flavor. Like the Persian variety, it’s self-pollinating. The Persian sweet lemon has a longer blooming and fruiting period, however, so it’s more popular. “Different cultures like different plants," Jahanbin said, shrugging and smiling.

-- Jeff Spurrier


Jamshid Taefi with his granddaughter Emily
and daughter Azadeh at his San Dimas home.


The Persian sweet lemons -- round with thin skin.


Majid Jahanbin, owner of Paradise Nursery in Chatsworth, standing by Persian
sweet lemon trees that have been grafted onto root stock that is more resistant to disease.

It is always amazing how different people describe the same product. I have a Persian Sweet Lime tree. The rind when scratched has a strong and excellent lemon scent. However, the pulp, is indeed sipped, I would say tasteless. At one time I stopped watering it, and was going to toss it out, but the poor tree just hung on and on. After a while I felt sorry for the tree, and have since relented and again started to take care of it. The only value, as far as I'm concerned, is the surprise one gets when people take a bite thinking it is going to have the traditional lemon bitter taste. - Millet (356 ABO-)