Food For Thought

Things/places/people/ideas/foods that I'm looking into/have come across in travels/at home/community. 

Flying Dragon Tree Fruit -  poncirus trifoliata - "Hardy Chinese Lemon" Found and foraged in Paris, September 2017.

By some, deemed "inedible" and by others,  worth a bit of effort.  These fruit await their next transformation into a marmalade, a miso pickle, and perhaps some other edible. Used in oriental medicine, dried, these are sold over-the-counter in Korea as a gastrointestinal aid !  

Related to the citrus family, poncirus trifoliata are in a separate genus all of their own. Originally from Northern China and Korea, they can be grown in colder climes than citrus/agrumes. The tree is a seriously thorny fellow and from the research, offer big, beautiful blousy, fragrant, flowers in the spring and in early fall that I'll be on the lookout for.     

Just look at those thorns ! 

Yeah, you could say this looks something like a "toothpick" tree. I've read of people growing these for dense hedges to keep out deer and rabbits.  Try crawling through that ! Telegraph writer, gardener Matthew Wilson says it is "blissfully free of pests" 

Smaller than say, an italian lemon...

Almost perfect spheres of3-4 cm in diameter.  A beautiful deep yellow. Soft velvet-like fuzzy exterior.