You never know where your passion can take you and for Jade King, her love of education, agriculture and unique Australian produce has led her down a path she never thought she would travel and somewhat suprisingly, into the world of native fingerlime production.

Described as a citrus caviar, the delicate beads of the fingerlime are a lime flavoured experience that burst in your mouth and it is that uniqueness, that has seen the indigenous fruit find its way into dishes and onto the table of some of the best cooks in the country.

While the fingerlime is still very much a niche market product, it is gaining popularity not just for its taste, but also for its nutritional content.

And with over 65 different varieties of the finger lime identified in the wild, there is a diverse range of shapes, peels and colours, however all varieties share the caviar-like pulp.

Ms King first came across the fingerlime when she was out walking in the bush which prompted her to have a go at growing one on her 72-acre property.

“Personally, I am a lover of all of Australian native produce and when I discovered fingerlimes growing out in the bush, I really wanted to grow one at home so I bought one from a market stall but it quickly died,” she said.

Ms King said she found the spiky bush and the unusual fruit fascinating and quite typical for Aussie fruit - rough on the outside but unique and sweet on the inside.

As a senior agronomist and head of agriculture at Glasshouse Christian College, she was able to revisit her love of finger limes when she came across a student project to grow the unusual fruit.

Next minute she had 350 fingerlimes in the ground and was accidently on her way to becoming a commercial grower.

“I describe myself very much as an accidental but passionate grower,” Ms King said.

Establishing Green Valley Fingerlimes in Beerwah in Queensland twelve years ago has been a labour of love, quite literally and today there are over 2000 trees in the ground – 1200 Red Champagne, 400 Chartreuse and 400 Emeralds which she is currently in the process of developing.

Each variety is grown for its different characteristics.

The Red Champagne for its colours and unique nutritional benefits, the Chartreuse for it flavour, soft green skin and clear crystal pearl while the Emerald’s darker skin has a better shelf life and an attractive vibrant green pearl. 

The fingerlimes are harvested from December through to August with peak production between the months of January to May.

Grown on a thorny, understory shrub or tree, picking the fruit is hard going and requires protective gear including long sleeve shirt and gloves.

“Not many people ever come back to help pick again because it is such hard work,” Ms King said.

A small bush can easily grow into a full sized tree but Jade prefers to keep hers around 2mX2m in size. She prunes out all the dead and infected material to open up the tree and help with ease of harvesting.

Some growers hedge prune their orchards but Jade prefers to selectively prune hers.

The orchard is mounded up to help with adequate drainage.

Ms King utilises a slow release fertiliser program four times a year and adds organic manure and low trace elements through the fertigation system. She has found analysing soil and leaf data to be beneficial for management.

Once handpicked, the fingerlimes are taken to the packing shed on the farm where they are dried under a fan and then packed fresh for the Australian market or exported overseas.

The produce is packed in varying sizes of 100gm for small users through to 1-2kg boxes for the bigger users like restaurants and wholesale market both here and overseas.

Ms King said she has seen finger limes grown across many different climates from snowy regions to temperate climates and here in Australia, they are grown from Queensland through to Victoria.

“I was lucky enough to travel the world under a Nuffield Scholarship and fingerlimes are definitely a very hardy tree that can be grown anywhere.”

She said the Australian fingerlime industry is currently expanding rapidly and now leads the world in commercial production, as well as becoming a world leader in research and development.

She remains as passionate about the industry today as she was when she first started.

“I love meeting other growers and hearing their stories, it really is such a wonderful industry to be involved in and I have met so many great people.”

Ms King recently became chair of the Australian Native Fingerlime Association (ANFA) board which was established as a peak industry body.

ANFA intends to establish and maintain an industry database to support grower communication, forecasting and marketing initiatives, biosecurity, research and development.