The Nagami Kumquat
We don’t grow everything hydroponically. The small holding is a mixture of conventional soil based gardening and hydroponics. I don’t think it’s possible to grow everything hydroponically although I might be wrong. I still have a lot to learn. At the moment the main goal is to keep our hydroponic experiment as simple as possible.
As well as the kitchen garden, the hydroponic and the conventional polytunnel we have two greenhouses. One is dedicated to fruit growing. It’s currently home to a few dwarf trees – nectarine, apricot & cherry, and two grape vines whose root stock have been planted outside the greenhouse whilst the vine grows inside.
My pet project in this greenhouse is growing citrus trees. And it all started a few Christmases ago before we moved into our small holding.
Although I don’t have a very sweet tooth I do own one desert cookbook – Ready for Desert (My Best Recipes) by David Lebovitz. That particular Christmas I was looking for something I could serve on Christmas Eve and I came across his Champagne Gelee with Kumquats, Grapefruits & Blood Oranges recipe. Convinced I had seen kumquats in one of my local supermarkets I was determined to make this desert. But could I find them? Not a chance. I ended up substituting mandarin orange segments instead.
Moving to our small holding we made a list of criteria for deciding what to grow.
We like to eat it
It’s relatively expensive to buy
It’s difficult to buy
Hence the citrus tree project.
The Nagami kumquat is an unusual little citrus plant. It produces an abundance of small oval, orange fruits late in the season, that are eaten whole. The rind is sweet whilst the flesh bitter. A native to South Asia, the small evergreen bush needs hot 
summers, but is hardy enough to withstand temperatures as low as -10 degree centigrade. Although the people I buy my citrus trees from recommend keeping the temperature no lower than 3 degrees.
With one of my bushes full of fruit, I searched online for ideas as to what to do with them and came across a kumquat marmalade recipe, by who other than David Lebovitz!
Here’s his recipe.
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2014/02/kumquat-marmalade-recipe/
hydro2plate 