My Kaffir Lime Tree

Last week we had a surprised. Our potted Kaffir Lime Tree had a fruit on it. We were delighted. Like anything, there is always a story behind it. This is the story of our Kaffir Lime Tree.

When we first came over 20 years ago, it was hard to fine Asian spices and groceries. Asian groceries store were rare, then. Most Asian spices we needed were brought over by friends and visiting relatives.

My Aunty migrated over here 10 years ago and she misses Malay cooking during her first year. She cannot find some spices and one of them is Kaffir Lime. Kaffir Lime is one important ingredient in Malay cooking.

When she was a young teacher having just graduated from college, she was posted to Kota Bahru (KB) in the state of Trengganu, East coast of mainland Malaysia. She came from a Teow Chew family and is so used to Teow Chew cooking. When arriving in KB, it was like a cultural shock for her. Almost every food was spicy and she found it hard to adapt since Teow Chew food were different and “Chng, Chng”. She was longing to finish her posting and quickly apply for a transfer out of this place, back to KL or Klang nearer to the family.

But what man or woman may plan, it is God who direct his or her steps. She fell in love in KB, got married and having little choice, she learned to adapt. Slowly and surely she fell in love with the spicy Malay food. Her servant and her Malay friends began to teach her how to cook delicious Malay food. It was an adventure for her. She began to collect recipes of the delicious Malay foods that she learned from her friends.

So in one of trip back home, she went looking for Kaffir Lime fruits so she could get the seeds and propagate it over here. She told us it was hard to find Kaffir Lime fruits and by some stroke of luck she found 2 fruits in her Malay’s friend house, who has a large tree. The total number of seeds she got out of it was six.

We were all excited when she bought the seed back. My BIL who has a green finger was given the task to propagate them. He specially bought a heating pad to propagate these seeds. Out of the six seeds only four survived. The four plants were distributed among the family and one of them was lucky me.

Today, my Kaffir Lime tree is 10 years old and we used it regularly for our cooking especially Beef Rendang which I learned from my Aunty. Whenever we have a gathering or potluck, friends would ask for Beef Rendang.

Of the four trees, mine is the only tree with fruit. The remaining 3 trees were taller and larger but no fruits and everyone was surprised that mine has fruit. They said it is the sign of good luck. Ha, ha, ha.

Inside the fruit, there were 4 seeds and my BIL is handed the task to propagate these four seeds. Now we have to wait and see how many seedlings will pop up.

By the way, I have tried to propagate the Kaffir Lime through cuttings and I have not succeeded yet. Any good suggesting?