(Della) I bought one of these plants several years ago whilst indulging in a little garden-centre impulse buying. Since then I have sporadically noticed 3 or 4 of the fruit deposited at the base of the shrub during autumn and picked them up as a novelty.
Today, however, I discovered that the shrub has become a little more serious about its mission and was able to carefully pick a little bowl full of the fruit.(I say “carefully” because of the vicious spines liberally sprinkled through the branches). They were perfectly ripe, and the jewelled fruit within had a sharp lime flavour. So, what to use them for?
Experiment 1: G&T garnish. Result: looked impressive and a great flavour burst, but a tiny bit would have tasted better than the contents of one whole fruit. ?Undeterred, I used another to dollop some little flavour balls on our salmon patties at dinner time. That was really good: tiny bursts of limey flavour enhanced the fish beautifully.
Apparently they only last for a few days once picked but freeze successfully for future use. Will check that out.
