Two Lime Trees
It is already five years ago that we bought a baby lime tree in the North of Portugal. I bought it at a really good plant and tree store. Although it was a special store, It almost died after a hot day in the car. We were travelling from the north to mid Portugal. It turns out that our baby tree, was almost without roots. After a lot of concern and care, we decided to buy a second one, and for some reason the first tree didn’t die. So now we have two lime trees!
It was kind of a hectic five years for them with Casa da Lima being their third place too root… They were left alone when we suddenly stayed in The Netherlands for a year, but luckily they survived it. Then in our front garden they also survived the cold winters afterwards. In Portugal the winters could be freezing cold. We live in a valley, down in our village, and there is frost, so a lot of trees we bought died. Now we have more time to keep an eye on them. Unfortunately until now, we did not have any limes. Hopefully coming years there will be a change.
Lime trees in Ribeira de Alcalamouque
In our village we have at least four lime trees. That is special. Almost every house has a lemon tree and there are a lot of orange trees but lime trees are not common here.
Casa da Lima needs limes of course. If you like to know what the difference is: The taste of limes is softer, not so sour. That is why it is perfect in cocktails like mojito and sauces in for example the Vietnamese cuisine.
This year our friends in our village surprised us. They also have two lime trees. Only they have big ones. Last years they just fell on the floor, we were told, because there were so many of them. But this year, we did a good job. They brought us over 150 limes and they we have used them all. First we put them in ice cubes to cook with it whenever we need it. And I started to make lime jams. First cautiously with two limes but every time I put some more limes in it. And what an explosive taste! I gave the jars to our friends. They also thought the same, delicious!
Soon after, I got a big order to make jars of lime jam. What a good idea!
Exciting Jam Combinations
I bought some additional fruit like apples, oranges and grapefruits and started to make exciting combinations of fruit and secret ingredients. With the ‘taste friends fruit’ book of a famous female Michelin chef in The Netherlands, I developed some interesting jams like Lime Mojito, Lime & Shine Orange, Lime Harmony Grapefruit, and Lime-Dandy Apple. It took a lot of experiencing also because you need some products I don’t have normally, e.g. pectine, which is not standard in the supermarkets here.
The pilgrims liked the jams and I received very positive feedback from the people who bought them!
Coming Year our Own Jams?
Hopefully I don’t need to buy fruits to make jams coming year because we are still waiting for our baby trees to give us fruit. Also all the old fruit trees, need to give us fruit soon. After pruning them heavily, when we bought the house and land, we are waiting. After 3-4 years they should produce again.
