Bergamot – another first for us
8Tuesday 16 June, 2015 by Uncle Spike
After a couple of failures, we now have a Bergamot Orange tree that seems relatively happy and settled. Although it flowered last season, no fruit was ever produced. Then, it was hit hard by the uncharacteristic freeze over winter, so hopes were not high at all for this season. And now this….
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Yes, one small fruit is growing. It’s early days yet, with summer temps only just kicking off, even though it’s mid-June, so we’ll see if it can grow to maturity. Here the fruit are huge; generally 15cm (6″) with a diameter of a good 10cm (4″). The rind is very knobbly and pitted, with a colour of a lemon. However, it’s the rind we are after – to make our own Earl Grey tea 🙂
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I’d never seen the actual fruit before. Love the punch it gives Earl Grey tea. I bet the rind is even punchier.
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Are you a farmer, Uncle Spike?
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One tries… 🙂
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Well done … ah, so that is what is behind bergamot essential oil, which I just love!
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Time to add a new tree….
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What a surprise. I didn’t know until now what bergamot actually was, although I like Earl Grey tea. It doesn’t taste at all like citrus to me.
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I think they extract the oil from the rind for the commercial tea, but we ‘shave’ off thin slices of rind and dry them. Then a few seconds in the old pestle and mortar and hey presto, a sort of Earl Grey type of tea that we add to our normal black Turkish tea 🙂
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Sounds lovely.
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