フィンガーライム Finger Limes

 バルコニーに置いてあるミアローズに沢山の実がついています。苗を買ってから数年、今年初めて実を着け始めました。実の大きさは2，3か月前に収穫したのと大体同じ。

The Mia Rose plant on the balcony has many more fruits growing, after the sampling I did a few months ago.  I bought this plant several years ago, and this is the first year of fruiting.  The sizes of the fruits are very similar to those I picked previously.

実を指でギュッと掴んでも石のように硬いので、収穫時期が分かりにくい。試しに１個とってみました。

When I squeeze the fruit between my fingers, it is rock hard and I am not sure how ripe it is.  I took a sample, anyway.

こちらは実生苗の白実。「実生苗」というと安っぽく聞こえますが、うちのフィンガーライムの中では一番優秀です。毎年着実に実を提供してくれるし、風味も爽やかで嫌味がない。

On the white seedling tree, there are also several fruits growing.  The word 'seedling' makes it sound cheap but this tree produces the best tasting fruits among my finger limes.  And, it is a steady producer, too.

こちらはリックスレッド。この苗だけ、今まで一度も結実がなく、今年の春のおびただしい開花のあとも着果がなかったので、スペース難もあり家の横に放置していました。最近思い出したように見たら、葉っぱがカリカリ。あーもう、涼しくなったら処分だ、と思って家の前で庭土に漉き込む準備をしていました。そこへ、連続の台風の雨。たっぷり恵みの雨を受けて復活したようです。

This is Rick's Red.  Among the finger limes I bought several years ago, this one has never produced any fruits - not even after this year's profuse flowering season.  Since space in my tiny garden is very precious, I put this plant at the side of my house and forgot about it during the summer.  When I came to look at it recently, the whole plant looked bone dry.  Ah, everything seemed hopeless with this plant.  So I moved it to the front of the house a few weeks ago in order to recycle the soil, waiting for the weather to turn cooler for the task.  Then, came the series of typhoons over the last few weeks, which brought heavy rains.  Amazingly, the plant recovered like nothing had happened.

よーく見たら、実が一個ついている！ 真夏の乾燥で生命の危機を感じて、必死に１個の実を着けたようです。

On closer inspection, I spotted a fruit!  The plant must have realised that it was on the verge of dying and managed to produce a fruit for the sake of species preservation.

小さいけど、うちの唯一の赤味品種なので嬉しい。

It is tiny, but this being the only red-flesh variety I have, I am happy.

先ほどのミアローズを半割にしてみました。私が絞り出してこの状態なので、まだ完熟ではなかったかも。

Back to the Mia Rose fruit.  When I cut it in half, the flesh did not ooze out on its own, so perhaps it was not ripe yet.

白を背景にすると、まあ、ピンクっちゃあピンクっぽいですが、ネットで見た売り文句の「アイスピンクを改良して、より安定したピンク色」を正当化できるかビミョーです。

As to the colour of the flesh, it looks pinkish but not impressive.  The recommendation I once saw on the internet "Mia Rose is an improvement of Ice Pink and it produces deeper pink flesh reliably" cannot be justified so far.