Sharing First Fruit with my Mom

My first lime ripened over the summer. The tree actually produced a pair of the beautiful green fruit, but one was severed by wind during a thunderstorm. The other lime, however, continued to grow and mature until it was ready to be picked. I decided this weekend to harvest my lime and share it with my mom during a trip to visit her in Wilmington.






Mom has been in the hospital again with a severe facial infection. She is doing better now and is back home. I took the opportunity of this visit to cook her a nice meal. It started with this lime. Since mom still has some sensitivity to acidic foods, I decided to use the lime to dress scallops.








My first step was to wash the lime and then grate it to remove its zest. I then sliced the lime in half.











Meanwhile, I had washed six large sea scallops, patted them dry with a paper towel and then dressed them in a small amount of salt, black pepper and garlic powder. I let them sit for a few minutes to acquire these added flavors.











While the scallops were sitting, I put on a pot of green beans and some baby red potatoes. In a skillet, I fried four strips of market style bacon until they were crisp. I put these strips aside to drain and poured out the majority of the bacon renderings, leaving just enough to pan sear the scallops. I let the scallops cook until golden brown on one side, then turned them and covered the skillet for a few minutes to let them cook through. Just before serving, I crumbled the crisp bacon and built my serving plates with the scallops, potatoes and beans. Atop the scallops, I brushed on the lime zest and then the crumbled bacon, before squeezing the juice of the


lime on top. The end result was a delicious meal of scallops cooked with bacon and lime, and a meal shared with my mom that included the first citrus fruit that I have ever grown.

When my dad was sick with cancer and in the hospital, my first crop of peaches came in. He was too sick to partake of his favorite fruit, so I shared it with his brother instead. I am very happy that my mom and I were able to share this lime together.



Categories: lime citrus+fruit gardening houseplants cooking scallops bacon Mom sharing