It may be a little premature to be blogging about my much anticipated cumquat harvest while the fruit are still green (counting my chickens before they're hatched?), but ooh I hope this lot ripens successfully :)

Last year, after our cat Roxy died, my friends at work bought me a cumquat tree. I'm not sure who contributed, but I know it was Rose that remembered my reminiscences about growing up with a cumquat tree, and I was so touched at receiving such a personal gift at that time.

I took this first photo back in January when the little tree was in blossom. We had nursed it through its first summer with extra shade and insect traps to keep the citrus gall wasp away. Such excitement to see that first tiny fruit appear, when the tree had been in the ground for less than a year!

Lots of flowers on my cumquat right now, and a tiny young fruit too :)

And now it's June - the flowers have gone, and have been replaced by lots of fruit (but not too many, as it's a young plant still). The cumquats appear to be full sized now, so hopefully they will start to change colour soon. We don't yet know what their season is, though, so only time will tell when they are ready to pick and eat.

The cumquats are coming! Looking forward to my first harvest this year :)

Cumquats are very tart, so when they're ripe we will most likely be adding lots of sugar to them, and making marmalade or brandied cumquats. But first I'm going to eat one straight off the tree! Those beautiful orange fruit were always such a big temptation to an impatient child, and every year I would forget how sour they are and try to eat one raw :) I'm looking forward to reliving that moment, including the I-just-sucked-on-a-lemon face that inevitably goes with it *lol*

P.S. Apparently cumquats are better known as kumquats outside Australia.