First baboon lemon!!

8 years ago

Well, I figured to commemorate the indoor citrus relocation, I would make a lemon chicken pasta with leftover rotisserie chicken. I finally harvested my first baboon lemon. It reminded me of the ponderosa in looks, but the flavor (although nice and sour) was not like other lemons. Before anyone asks, I am not good at describing those nuances in flavor, but I could taste the difference. It was almost more floral than traditional lemons. I don’t know how to explain it. I used the juice and the rind in the sauce and then my one leftover ripe sudachi. It was delicious! I also harvested a bunch of key limes and two limequats that were ready. I plan to make key lime pie if I have any energy tomorrow after bringing in the remainder of the trees. There are still tons of limes left on my trees but I figured I’d relieve them of a few of them. Most of these came from my giant key lime.

baboon on right, limequats on left

It was juicy, but hard to squeeze...required a lot of hand strength.

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Laura LaRosa (7b)
Original Author

8 years ago

Jinny, I am not sure, but there may have been hints of lime. The flavor is difficult to explain bc I’ve not tasted anything like it before . You need to get one so you can give us a proper description ;-). It was yellow and had lots of juice, but tough to squeeze. My daughter tried and she did not have the hand strength. I’m going to let the other yellow one sit on the tree longer to see if that makes a difference. Sammers, I did use the zest in my dish - I zested the entire lemon. I wish I could one day get all of these lemons side by side so I could do a proper comparison. It was definitely a sizeable lemon - almost as big as a ponderosa but I liked the flavor better.

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Comments (6)

calamondindave
8 years ago
Very interesting. I've never seen or tasted one of those. It looks like a sliced grapefruit. Sure has some seeds, doesn't it? My key limes are coming in strong now too. Key lime pie time!

Thanks for sharing the pics.
sunshine (zone 6a, Ontario,Canada)
8 years ago
Very nice, Laura! It is a big fruit. How old is your tree?
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Laura LaRosa (7b)
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks Dave! I love key lime pie!! I have so many key limes that I’ve been using them to squeeze in my water. Yeah, it had lots of seeds. Sunshine, I got my tree from Harris early summer of 2016. I’m not sure how old it was when I got it from them,..perhaps 2ish? It is a nice tree, not very tall but wide. The flowers are amazing as I’ve mentioned before. I liked the flavor bc it is not like that of a traditional lemon. I think Jinny has one of these and am sure she would be better at describing the flavor.
jinnylea
8 years ago
Hooray, Laura! You finally got to pick the "anticipated" Baboon Lemon fruit! It looks beautiful, and your lemon chicken pasta sounds delicious! I had to live through you and your tree because my tree did not hold onto any fruit. It struggled after getting hit by a unexpected freeze in my unheated gh..

I wonder why it was hard to squeeze, do you feel it was ripe enough to pick, or was it a very meaty lemon? Did you taste or smell any nuance of lime in the fruit/juice?
Sammers510
8 years ago
I was SO excited to see this post! The Baboon is on the top of my wishlist for next year. I have read that its has a more tropical twist in flavor then a normal lemon and that the zest has tons of flavor. Were you able to use any of the zest in your dish as well? Thanks for sharing and I am so envious of your fruit. I lost all of this seasons fruit when my back went out except for one lone Buddhas Hand that is almost fully yellow now. As it is my only fruit this year I am anxiously awaiting it to come off the tree. Next year will be a much better harvest.