When Life Gives You Rangpur Limes...Make Punch

Hope is my best friend's mother. When Hope and her husband Dwayne bought their new Southern California home in 1954, the front yard was landscaped with a few shrubs and greens. Among them was a dwarf citrus tree which was moved to the back yard.

Hope's kids would play tricks on their friends, by offering them the tree's orange fruit, then step back and watch their faces as they bit into it. While the fruit resembled oranges, they sure didn't taste like them.

After much trial, inquiry and speculation, Hope found the best use for the fruit, that resembles a small tangerine, but is actually, in fact, a Rangpur Lime. It seems to have no particular season (at least in Southern California), as there are blossoms and fruit all year long. Hope's tree has been producing fruit for about forty years! She freezes the juice in 1 1/2 cup portions, which are great for making a batch of punch (recipe link follows).

We thank Hope Randell and her daughter Sharon LaBurn for sharing their recipe for the most refreshing punch we have ever tasted. If you don't have orange Rangpur Limes growing in your yard, you can still make punch using ordinary limes, although you'll have to use more limes, as the Rangpur variety produce a lot of juice.

If you'd like a tree like Hope's in your own yard, ask your nursery for a dwarf Rangpur Lime Tree. They are hardy and easy to care for and will only set you back about $15.00-$20.00.

Makes 20 punch cup servings

Punch Base Mix 2 cups sugar 2 cups boiling water 1 cup pineapple juice 1 1/2 cups Rangpur Lime juice 6 cups total - ice and water 1 liter 7-Up

Mix sugar and boiling water together until sugar is fully dissolved. Add juice to sugar mixture and cool until serving time. Put six cups total of ice and water in a punchbowl, add punch base mix and stir in 1 liter of 7-Up soda. Garnish with fresh mint and thin citrus slices.