Kumquat Zest

12/24/2018 ~ I had a kumquat today. Happiness!!! It was so good! It fell off when I was moving the kumquat to a sunnier part of my plant room. It was delicious despite not being totally ripe. You can’t easily see the kumquats on the plant in the photo because they are still green, and tiny. As soon as they fully ripen I’ll take another photo.

11/4/2018 ~ I finally finished the extremely difficult task of complaining about the lawyer I hired to answer Wells Fargo’s Amended Complaint and Defend me at the foreclosure trial. He filed the answer late, so it was struck. He pushed me really hard to take Wells Fargo money for updates toward a reverse mortgage. But, appraisers I knew when I was a Realtor said my home was not going to appraise. So, had I followed the lawyer’s advice I’d have lost my home.

He didn’t prepare for trial, and made a bombastic summing up which I thought was powerful until I read the Findings and Conclusions he submitted, which said “mortgage” when they should have said “note.” There is not way the judge could have decided in my favor based on what my lawyer submitted.

So, to celebrate finishing the excruciating task, since it made me face up to how he was disingenuous to me and I fell for his act, I had the kumquat that had ripened on one of my kumquat “trees.” It was great!

Spotlight on Kumquats

Spotlighting the particular strengths of kumquats, “Zesty” comes to mind. When you eat a kumquat you pop the whole thing into your mouth, rind and all. The oils in the rind create a sensation of dancing flavor on your tongue. It’s highly enjoyable and not to be forgotten. Zesty describes it quite well.

When I was a kid, decades ago, an aunt living in California sent a box of kumquats to my grandparents for Christmas. All the tiny oranges in the box, which is what it looked like to me, was an amazing thing.

It was the same Christmas I found my doll’s baby buggy in the root cellar where it was “hidden” before being wrapped, and my grandfather said, matter-of-factly, that I hadn’t seen it. There was no such ambiguity with the kumquats, once tasted they became a memorable, real experience. I love the truth of kumquats, as it were.

Citrus Zest

The rich, aromatic oils in citrus rind, particularly that of lemons and oranges, is valued in cooking where, called “zest”, they impart a striking flavor to a variety of dishes from Zesty Beef to Orange Zest Sorbet.

Kumquats are naturally eaten with all their zest. I like to think of kumquats as a cordon bleu fruit because eating the rind and all gives the highest quality nutrition.

Zest for Life

I wonder if any of us, or in fact if all of us could be described as having Zest for life, if only we broke free of the stifling influences of job and family expectations. Yes, I’m straying into Kumquats as allegory. After all, with kumquats we take them in their entirety. In contrast we sift through so many characteristics when we evaluate people.

In consequence, knowing that people are constantly judging us, just as we are judging them, we shape what we show to the world. We peel off what we think might be seen as undesirable. We carefully reduce the speed of our reactions so that if what we feel is not commonly acceptable we won’t show it and thereby shock anyone. One of my mother’s strongest admonitions was, “Never let anyone know how you feel.” My greatest sadness is that I never let some of the people I loved the most, know how I felt.

Not surprisingly, emotional courage is said to consist of Authenticity (truthfully being yourself), Bravery (not hiding in the face of a threat), Persistence (sticking with it), and Zest (approaching life, living life with excitement and energy).

So, kumquats are a wonderful thing to me, smile making. And, at the same time, that “all in” quality of kumquats adds to their nutritional value.

Kumquat Nutrition

Fruit Peel

To call a fruit’s outer covering “fruit peel” sends the message that it is to be peeled away and, as likely as not, discarded. This is a great shame! The outer layers of a fruit are often densest in nutrition.

For instance, the skin of blueberries, grapes, guava, and kumquats contain higher concentrations of anti-oxidants than their flesh.

Citrus peel is a rich source of dietary fiber or NSP, non soluble polysaccharides. These dietary fiber compounds increase the bulk of food and help prevent constipation by reducing gastrointestinal transit time. Plus, they bind toxin chemicals that may be in the food, thereby protecting the gut’s mucus membrane as well as the intestine. This lowers colon cancer risk. Another real bonus is that dietary fibers bind to bile salts from cholesterol and eliminate them which helps lower “bad” LDL cholesterol levels.

Peel is low in calories, sugar, and fats; and due to its bulk it helps cut down on hunger and overall food intake.

The peel of some fruit contains considerable amounts of mineral and vitamins, especially in guava and citrus fruits. Orange peel contains higher levels of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) than its juice. 100 g of fresh orange-peel provides 136 mg of vitamin C while its flesh contains 71 mg per 100 g. Likewise, fruit peel is a rich source of vitamin A, B-complex vitamins, minerals such as calcium, selenium, manganese, zinc etc., several fold more than the pulp.

Passion fruit peel has been shown to contain certain compounds that have a bronchodilator effect and can help relieve bronchospasm in asthma patients. A trial study conducted by Watson RR and his colleagues at Tuscon University AZ, suggests that oral administration of the purple passion fruit peel extract reduces wheeze and cough and improves shortness of breath in adults with asthma. (Related link-Pubmed.gov)

6/29/2015 ~ When my kumquat arrived I repotted it into an 8″ clay pot, as directed by Logee’s. It flowered and tiny kumquats formed, but they never got big. This spring when the kumquat had been outside for several weeks without any change to the size of the little kumquats, I picked them and repotted into a 7 gallon TubTrub.

When the kumquat began to flower there was an enormous increase in flower size. I wanted to take a picture of the beautiful flowers, but the light wasn’t right, then today when the light was perfect, the flowers had faded.

However, the Sunquat flower is beautiful, I photographed it. The plant is a hybrid: lemon and kumquat.

In the picture you can see dark green leaves, which are its original leaves, and much larger, lighter green leaves. The larger leaves emerged after I repotted it into a 3.5 gallon TubTrug.

Planting in TubTrugs ~ Read more.

Me and My Garden

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Summary

Article Name

Kumquat Zest

Description

To eat a kumquat, pop the whole thing into your mouth rind and all. The oils in the rind create a sensation of dancing flavor on your tongue. Zesty describes it

Author

Karen Kline

Publisher Name

Health Boundaries

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