Finger Limes

These are limes, believe it or not.




They look like pickles, don't they? That's what I thought when I first saw them. Actually, they're a citrus native to Australia known as finger limes. Citrus australasica, or the finger lime is a gross-looking citrus that produces what's known as "lime caviar".This fruit comes in a variety of spectacular colors including green, yellow, orange, red, purple, black and brown. In fact, it is thought that the finger lime has the widest range of colors of any known citrus.

Wild Finger Lime is a website dealing in the commercial sale of the citrus in Australia. They have some beautiful pictures of imaginative recipes using the caviar. The caviar spheres apparently pop in your mouth and fill it with fresh lime juice when chewed! These fruit are said to have a slightly sweeter, more aromatic taste than other limes. I can't wait to try one!

Here's a sample of the caviar.

From the top, these colors are known as rainforest ruby, rainforest garnet, rainforest jade, rainforest pearl, rainforest diamond, rainforest jade 2, and rainforest topaz. The sale of these limes on a commercial scale has been increasing since 2000, and plans for hybrid varieties in the US are already in the works.

Finger lime caviar can be used in all kinds of ways. Here's an oyster dish using the lime caviar. It can also be used in cocktails and on sushi!