This weekend I bought a big bag of kumquats. I had never actually tried one, though I’ve been fascinated by the little guys for years. Not only is it one of the most fun fruit names to say, they’re like tiny, perfect little oblong oranges. I was pretty sure that you’re supposed to eat the fruits whole, so I rinsed one off, popped it into my mouth and bit down, ready to savor the citrusy goodness. Not, as it turns out, how you eat a Kumquat. The taste of the pulp is much closer to that of a lemon than that of an orange (only even more tart), and when you just eat it like that the rind is very bitter. To the internet I went, looking for the proper way to eat them (peeling them all seemed just too ridiculous to contemplate). The trick, I discovered, is to roll the fruit between your fingers before eating to release the essential oils in the rind. Then you need to chew thoroughly. The sweetness of a kumquat is in the rind, and it needs to be chewed into the sour pulp. Once you’ve got the trick down, though, it is an amazingly delicious, complex fruit. This, I thought, is a fruit that I want to grow for myself.
It turns out that I can. Wayside Gardens has several citrus trees that thrive in containers, so all of us can grow delicious citrus fruit almost anywhere in the country. I might just grab up a Citrus kumquat ‘Nagami,’ which will produce those great little fruits that I’ve just discovered I love. Plus, it’s an evergreen that will, in the right indoor conditions, produce intermittently year-round. If you’re looking to grow limes for Mexican cuisine or mixing drinks, you can’t go wrong with the seedless lime Citrus ‘Bearss.’ You also might consider the Citrus limon ‘Meyer Improved,’ one of the most popular container citrus trees ever.