Jean B. wrote:
> James Silverton wrote:
>> Hello All!
>>
>> Today, I was in my local Balduccis, the best and probably the most
>> expensive "gourmet" store. They had what I wanted: dates but there
>> were some other interesting things like "giant lemons", really as big
>> as grape fruits. I did not try these but they also had "sweet limes"
>> and I bought one even if they were $5.99 a pound. They looked somewhat
>> like limes with smooth yellow skins but had little lime taste being
>> like not very juicy seedless oranges. You can keep them in my opinion.
>>
> Assuming the lemons don't lack flavor, they could be useful. The limes
> don't sound like my cup of tea though. For one thing, I like the
> tartness of limes.
>
The lemons sound like Ponderosa lemons, supposedly a sport between
lemons and grapefruit or one of the other citrons. We have a tree on the
south side of our garage and it makes lemons as big as three pounds on
occasion. The skin is thick and bumpy and the lemon has a great many
seeds. The seeds are viable and, if planted, will grow into another
Ponderosa lemon tree. I've grown hundreds of them over the years to give
away and also to sell at our annual plant sale when we still had them.
Make a nice tree with some thorns on the branches. In the south they're
prone to citrus rust mites but are easily treated with sulfur in a
spray. We put up about 20 quart bags of lemon juice cubes every fall and
enjoy "fresh" lemon juice in tea, water, etc. all year. Wife makes
lovely lemon pies from the juices and I keep a bottle in the fridge for
use in cooking.