The Salty Lime Co is a family-owned finger lime farm established in 2013. We have 33 acres of native Australian finger lime trees on our Capricorn Coast farm. Driven by a love of all things nature, our farm is a little slice of paradise: part rustic farm and part coastal retreat.
Finger limes (also known as Citrus Australasica) are found growing on small trees in the rainforests in Queensland and northern New South Wales. The small fruits were originally used by Indigenous tribes as a food source; the limes were foraged in tropical jungles for their tangy pulp. The pearls were also used for medicinal purposes to ward off sickness and were applied topically as an antiseptic.
The fruit of a rare rainforest tree, the finger lime has been a valuable source of food and medicine for Indigenous Australians for thousands of years. The fruit was eaten for its delicious taste and its ability to ward off disease, while the pulp and juice of finger limes were applied as an antiseptic to infected sores and boils.
When European settlers cleared the bush for farming, many of the finger lime trees were destroyed. Fortunately, the tree survives in several isolated pockets of sub-tropical rainforest on private land and in national parks. Currently these are the only wild sources of finger limes in the world.
