A-Z Blogging Challenge: Limes?

I grew up thinking I hated limes. This was because my mother loved a "lime" flavoured cordial (I think it's called cool aid elsewhere. It's a "fruit" flavoured sugary syrup, which is mixed with water to make it very diluted for drinking and much loved by children). To me at least, the lime version was frankly revolting. Where we lived can be very hot - 38-39 C is not uncommon in the summer and every year we manage to hit plus 40 C on a number of occasions - and this means plain water gets less than thirst quenching. Cordial was a cheaper option than most other flavoured drinks and is still popular, of course. But I'm digressing. The point is that this was my introduction to "limes" and I never wanted to try them or go near them again.

Fast forward quite a few years and TV chefs are rhapsodising over limes. They're using them in all sorts of ways and I cannot understand why anyone would use let alone like them. They're revolting, right? Then one day a friend gave me three limes from his tree and I felt obliged to use them. I dug out one of Nigella's recipes and was blown away. It was delicious, even the scent of the lime was delightful and nothing remotely like that of my childhood memory. I got more adventurous and experimented, even substituting lime for lemon in various recipes. All equally yummy.

So now I'm hooked and I have my own little lime tree.

As you can see it's had a bit of a tough summer - almost all the citrus in our area have been attacked by aphids and leaf curl this summer - but it's recovering with new shoots coming.














It's a dwarf so it will always remain in a pot but even last year it produced half a dozen full size fruit although it is no more than three years old at most. This year's crop is already looking impressive. Fingers crossed it lives up to its promise.