"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
"Farm1" wrote after "Bob Hobden" wittered on and "Sacha" wrote
((snip))

Candying it would work fine but how much does one want, even with
a
Tea Shop
there are only so many cakes it can be used in/on. Hot Cross Buns
spring to
mind. :-)

I'm green with envy. My husband always likes to have a Boiled
Fruit
Cake sitting on the cake stand ready for his numerous snacks
during
the day and candied peel is one of the important ingredients for
it.
And the blasted local shop seems to think that country cooks only
want
candied peel at Christmas time for some strange reason known only
to
themselves!

I think we can get mixed chopped candied fruit all year here in the
UK and
there must be somewhere near you that stocks it all year. Even if
it's in a
major city some distance away they may post it to you.

I can get it easily enough if I go to a major supermarket but that's a
hike. It's the small village supermarket which doens't stock it.
this supermarket has all sorts of fancy Thai ingredients and doesn't
even have candied peel and we are in teh country where I know there
are lots of other old fashioned country cooks. I'd rather have the
basic ingredients than the fancy prepared stuff like the Thai bits and
bobs which I can make easily enough. Candied peel isn't one of the
quick ones to whip up.

Anyway, couldn't you grow such a citrus plant outside where you are
in Oz?

Not easily. I live in a cold climate where it gets down to a min
of -9 C in winter. I've tried one lemon and it died but I do have a
mandarin which is supposedly a lot more tender doing rather well. I
planted it where the sun can't hit it before the frost melts and that
seems to work. The lemon got the sun on it too early in the day.

The fruit truly are huge and it would make a good talking point,
Lemons the
size of Ozzy Rules footballs, imagine it. :-)

Sounds a bit like an Osage Orange which always remind me of brains. I
have been told that I should be able to grow finger limes here by
someone who I respect so I may just try one of them. I think the only
thing they are good for is the peel.