Key Lime Pies in Florida

Key Limes (Photo from lookimadethat.com.)

Key limes are small, somewhat larger than a walnut, oval in shape with a thin yellowish rind.  They are aromatic and very juicy, with a stronger and more acidic flavor than Persian limes.

We really like Key lime pie, but in Raleigh it is difficult to find Key limes, and most of us use ordinary limes for making  Key lime pies.  I don't like to use the bottled Key lime juice, because it seems to make the pie too acidic. 

Now that we are in Southern Florida we hope to get the pie made with REAL key limes. We are trying Key lime pie as a dessert each time we have the opportunity.  The three of us share one piece of pie.

Key lime pie we shared in Fort Lauderdale.

Key limes were cultivated for thousands of years in the Indo-Malayan region, and this variety has long been treasured for its fruit and decorative foliage.

Key lime pie in Naples.

Columbus is credited with bringing the Key lime to Hispaniola (now known as Haiti), where it was carried on by Spanish settlers to Florida.

It flourished in South Florida, particularly the Florida Keys, hence the current common name of Key lime. Due to hurricane-depleted soils, locals switched from pineapple commercial crops to limes in 1906, and business boomed until a hurricane  wiped out the lime groves, never to be restored. Today, most Key limes come from Mexico


 Here's now to make a quick and easy  Key Lime Pie.


I noticed that Key limes are available in the grocery stores down here, and I plan to take some home, but I will wait until we are actually in the Keys later in the week.  And I can't wait to try the Key lime pie down in the Keys.  Of course, I like Key lime pie anywhere.