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A wonderful gift from my sister this Thanksgiving were some colorful kumquats. I had never seen ones like this. The fruits were variegated. They like similar to the variegated Spanish limes you see sold at Home Depot sometimes, but these were orange. I had to do a little Googling to find out what they were because I did not think they were pure kumquats. The current thought is that these are ‘Centennial’ variegated kumquats. I thought maybe a weird hybrid like Orangequats or Citrangequats. They were a lot larger that one in the stores nor did they have sweet tasting skin/peel, but extremely juicy unlike most kumquats. The fruit did have a sour/acidic tangerine favor. It was just a bit to sour to eat on its own (though I could get used to it), but I could see something being made with them. She made nice tasting meringue pie with them for Thanksgiving and the year before she made some nice marmalade. Now I wish I got some more of that pie to take home with me.
This has got me thinking more about citrus I can put in my yard. There are not many citrus that will grow in north-central Georgia. Most that can grow here are not that tasty, but I have a few choice ones with some possibility (read ode to Thomasville.). I am sure there are others are out there that I haven’t tried yet. I have recently built a little plastic shelter on the side of my house for my citrus experiments. Its just a PVC structure that I can cover with some 6 mil clear plastic for the coldest nights. Once these trees get to a goods size I hope they wont need the plastic.
Today I cut these fruits up and plan to try some wine with what she gave me. I of course extracted the seeds to see is I can grow any to add to my collection. I don’t know how hardy it would be, but I always like to test things.
