These are the unopened buds of a type of day lily, used in Chinese cooking. They require soaking before use and often have to be secured while cooking to prevent them from falling apart.
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Lima or butter beans are a slightly sweet to neutral-flavored oval to kidney-shaped legume which when dried are cream colored, but fresh, are pale green. High in both potassium and protein, they are served both hot and cold from soups to salads, sautéed in butter or olive oil and famously so with corn in a dish called succotash. Cooked limas have a soft, yielding and smooth texture. Overcooked, the beans can be bitter and mealy while when fresh, they must be cooked uncovered to allow the naturally occurring and minute amounts of cyanide to escape, for this reason, lima or butter beans cannot be eaten raw. Native to South America, there are two well-known varietals, the larger Fordhook and “baby” limas which when speckled purple are known as calico beans. Lima beans may also be called wax beans, Madagascar or, sometimes, chad beans.
A modern variety of yellowish-green eating apple raised by Mr H Ermen of Faversham in Kent around 1985 as a cross between Discovery and Greensleeves and introduced commercially in 2000 by FW Matthews of Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire. This mid-season variety is harvested from early October in South-East England and is at its best from October to December.
A limequat is a cross between a lime and a kumquat, rich in vitamin C. This produces a shiny, greenish yellow fruit. As with kumquats, the skin can be eaten and is the sweetest part of the fruit. The seeds are also edible. They ripen in autumn (US: fall) and winter. The fruit is eaten out of hand or made into marmalade or otherwise used as you might used limes of lemons. The fruit originated in China but is now found in California and Florida, Israel, Japan, Spain and South East Asia.
A very fine, small variety of soft lettuce. The leaves are smaller than those of the Boston lettuce, which is the other most well known butterhead lettuce.
