My grandfather used to tease us (my brother and cousins and I) with mock-threats to serve us kumquats if we didn’t behave/eat our veggies/what-have-you.

Being young and ignorant of things such as kumquats, I was naturally horrified by the thought of eating anything with such an ungainly-sounding name. Naturally, I supposed that these “kumquats” were some horrid-tasting vegetable whose flavor hovered somewhere between rancid squash (yuck!!) and boiled beets (eeeeeeeeewww!!!!!).

Today, I discovered that kumquats are, in fact, a relative of citrus fruits. They have a pleasantly bitter-tart-sweet flavor and an oval shape. And they very well may be my absolute favorite fruit of all.