http://www.sunkistfs.com/products/grapefruit.asp

It could be one of these.

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph6.htm

D

Since Morton's e-mail address is published on that Purdue horticulture page, perhaps an exchange of photos by e-mail could be used to clarify things if some of the entries are relevant? A posted photo would probably help within the context of your weblog, now that I think of it.

"Is he shoving those Sweetie wedges into the eel's stomach?"

"Now he's putting . . . is that salt?"

"Fukui-san!"

"Yes Ota?"

"The challenger tells me that he's using salt from the San Francisco Bay."

"Ooooooh, how exotic!"

So tell me: How did you know?

John, at first I thought they were some kind of dwarfish grapefruit, but I knew they weren't when I smelled their peel.

Bob, that's a cool site. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did confirm that the odd citrus fruits I bought (and made into marmalade) when I was in Italy were in fact etrogs that hadn't made the grade.

Vancouverite, a sweetie is a kind of pummelo. The mystery citrus does smell kind of like a pummelo, but it's much smaller, and doesn't have a pummelo's extra-thick rind.

Rachael, I'll bet what you're getting are clementines -- what Patrick calls "the Palm Pilot of fruits". Where do you live again?

The question is, is the Palestine sweet lime the same as the Indian sweet lime?

And if that grocery sells fuzzy fruits that look much like kiwis but are brown inside and taste a bit like dates and a bit like brown sugar, they're called chikus.

Got lucky with Google and a guess. :-) Second try, I typed in a string of stuff that had "lime" and "sweet" in it, and managed to hit something that matched your description. [First try, I looked up yuzu (association from a recent Sushi Experience With Jon Singer) and decided that wasn't it.]

I love produce adventures. My last one was when the local Ranch 99 (Chinese grocery chain) had "dinosaur egg" plums. Took one bite and went to look up if it was what I thought I tasted. And it was: a plum-apricot cross.

Fruit experts: ever had golden kiwi? The flesh is chartreuse instead of bright green and the flavour is less tart. The golden kiwis also lack the usual fuzz, so I just scrub the skin a bit and eat them unpeeled like apples. I found some local stores that stocked them a couple of years ago, but I must have been the only customer because they have disappeared from our shelves. Golden kiwis should come into season between June and September, so look out for them this summer and hope that you have more luck than I've had.

See: http://www.wdr.de/tv/ardheim/image/000709_16.jpg

(Although plucking a sun-warmed, ripe peach from a branch and biting into it, with juice exploding all over your face, is also an experience not to be missed.)

http://www.tropicalfruit.com/tfc/searchresults.asp?resultstype=category&ID=2

Bruce, the fruit I tend to wait for and pounce upon, when it arrives at the Ranch 99 in the summer, is lychee. And CostCo's Ranier cherries ain't bad, either. Much envy over the peaches.

Rachel, a lot of the webpages say "Palestine (Indian) sweet lime", so I'd guess that they're the same thing.

Dinosaur eggs are great. Also beautiful.

Cory, a tastable small amount of a not-very-sweet citrus is within limits, if you're otherwise rigorous. By the way, have you run into Michel Cluizel's Chocolat Noir Infini? Bitter dark chocolate, 99% cocoa solids, but smooth. Minimal carbohydrates, maximum chocolate. Just break off a dab and let it melt on your tongue.

For odd fruits, we also have loquats, with two different varieties: an orange-fleshed one that tastes somewhat orangish and a white-fleshed one that basically tastes like nicely textured sugar-water.

I've been told loquats make a very good jam/jelly that has the basic consistency of apple butter.

Because clementines are portable, easy to use, and come with built-in personal-organization software. Everyone knows that.

Oh, look! There are plum/cherry hybrids, too! Man, my produce places and farmers' markets have been letting me down.

MKK

Cherry-plums are grown around here mostly as an ornamental because the leaves of the trees are plum colored. The fruits are the same color and are basically small juicy plums with no cherry flavor to speak of.

We have a plum tree and pick the fruit for jam, and when we're feeling industrious, we raid the cherry-plum next door and add those to it.

You won't find them in markets because they're not particularly good eating as plums--nice flavor, but too small. Though the trees are gorgeous.

I ::must:: have this. Is there a recipe?

Lisa
wandering in via sff.net

Judith, I'd noticed the calamondin. I made my first limequat marmalade a couple of years ago. It tasted great, but if it had set up any firmer it would have been difficult to eat. Last year I made a kumquat/limequat mix instead, and liked it better on all counts.

Have you seen manoras? They're turning up in NYC. The first ones I saw had a hand-lettered sign on the bin that said FROM JUST OFF THE COAST OF ISRAEL, and little blue stickers on the fruit that said CYPRIA. Geopolitical silliness aside, they're a very nice hybrid.

Okay, okay, I confess: I stressed out the other day and went on a non-Atkins binge, devouring one really good ugli, two manoras, and one of the sweet limes I was saving for Singer. What I really wanted were Mexican sour oranges, but those only appear when the planets are in certain arcane alignments.

Bruce, you know all those ornamental sour orange trees that Anglo Phoenicians think have inedible fruit? Not true. The oranges are great. They just aren't sweet. They make a hell on wheels margarita, and they're almost as good for making preserves as Seville oranges.

I think that's funny. I can't tell you how many times I've heard members of my family wondering why Mexicans don't have any more sense than to gather the windfalls from those trees.

An underripe ugli will still taste good, but it won't be as sweet as it could be. An old one will taste stale and overripe, but still pretty good. You've got to figure they taste good, if they look like that and still get shipped.

We have two big Orange trees, a small lemon and some other citrus trees in pots including a Kaffir lime - we just use the leaves for cooking though -didn't think the fruits were edible. Any suggestions?

One of them is in my bathroom in its tiny pot.... as Billy Griggs, of Griggs Farm a half mile away, put it "you have to have -something- to feed the mealybugs." I rather doubt that it will survive in my care anywhere near long enough to have fruit, but hope springs eternal....

The current plant fad I don't understand is people pay $6.00 a sweet potato plant -- why not just buy a sweet potato from a store, and pot the thing up or plant it?!