A New Year’s treat
Welcome the new 2020 year with joy, hope and kindness. It’s time to start over and do new projects and forgive everything we did not get done last year.
It does take a little bit of special egg nog to forget some of the things we defaulted on last year, however we must be brave and step up and do better each new year.
My first new project is to let you dear gardeners know about a special fruit, not locally grown, but really interesting, called Buddha’s Hand Citron.
This fruit looks like a creepy lemon hand with long fingers — a perfect Halloween fruit.
The scientific name is Citras medica var. sarcgdactylis. Higher class: identification citron.
This is a multi-fingered citron that unlike a lemon or orange is a juice-free and straight-up peel and spongy pith citron.
The magic of the Buddha’s Hand is that the whole thing is edible.
It looks like a lumpy, long-fingered lemon, and smells very pleasant.
It may have been brought to China from India by Buddhist Monks and cultivated in ancient China near the Yangtze Valley.
Many, many things have found their way to the U.S. from China.
The fruit is now grown in California since about 2008. It is a tree fruit that is equally crazy with its fingered canopy that ranges from 6 feet to 12 feet high.
Served around the New Year, it is believed to symbolize happiness, wealth and longevity.
The powerful lavender scent also makes the fruit attractive for ornamental purposes. I really think the scent is more a light, sweet lemon scent.
The fruit is noticeable because it looks like a lemon with long creepy fingers, something like a small squid lying on its side. Mostly all a bright lemon color with a cluster of light green smaller fingers in center.
What to do with it: try it candied, or as a marmalade. It is sweet and not sour and can be a salad dressing with garlic and thyme and Balsamic vinegar. Let the mix set overnight.
Buttermilk waffles are said to be pretty delicious with citron zest added which will also perfume the food and start off a great Zen morning.
It may take a few moments to get used to clipping off the long fingers, however it seems better to me than pickled pigs feet that used to be a favorite at my hous years ago.
I did not get this citron special at the local market but in Fort Myers at a smaller grocery store. I was looking at a strange dragon fruit that my daughter likes for some reason.
It is a new year and we need to keep up with the world weather we agree with everyone, or everything that is going on.
Remember we reap what we sow.
Happing gardening till we met again.
H.I. Jean Shields is Past President for the Garden Club of Cape Coral.