Armed with welding gloves Kevin Bowden from Givelda near Bundaberg, is about to tackle what may be the bloodiest harvests in Australia.
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His wife Fiona Bowden will be joining him as they pick the small native citrus from the dense thorn-thick trees, but she prefers a heavy duty kangaroo-skin gardening glove.
"Everything is done by hand, so we just kit-up," he said.
"I wear long welding gloves, riggers gloves and a long sleeve shirt, and Fiona (Bowden) uses rose pruning gloves which seem to work.
"If you stick your hand in without protection it will come out bleeding, there is no doubt about it."
The citrus, often called "native caviar" because of the small pearls of flesh, is grown between Cairns and northern New South Wales and has become popular in high-end restaurants and bars.
Mr Bowden grew up on a cattle property near Gin Gin and still has a herd, but the couple were looking diversify with a crop to sow in the rich red soil surrounding their home near the Burnett River.
"We had this bit of red soil and wanted to do something, Fiona calls it a 'high value soil'," he said.
"It wasn't big enough to do avocados or macadamias, so we looked around and had three recommendations - finger limes, persimmons and blueberries.
"I thought blueberries would be labour intensive with picking, persimmons I didn't know anything about so with finger limes being a native we opted for them and I'm pretty proud of what we have done."
When asked if running cattle of farming finger limes is harder work, Mr Bowden said he thought the native citrus you be a little less fuss, but he has been proved wrong.
"I was thinking the finger limes we could just plant and forget, but that definitely is not the case," he said.
"To do things properly I think cattle might be easier, I'm finding the finger limes to be quite intensive and fairly time consuming because I put a lot of effort into them and believe if I look after the trees they will reward us."
Branded as Givelda Springs Finger Limes the couple grow a seedless variety known as "red champagne" and supply markets in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, as well as in the local region.
Mr Bowden said supplying the local market was partly to raise awareness of native citrus, but also to investigate value-added options by consulting with businesses that dry fruit, create preserves and soft drinks.
"We are really passionate about the education side because they are such a versatile fruit, you can put them in salads, on seafood, into drinks, desserts and cakes, they are pretty amazing," he said.
"Fiona has been exploring value-adding, like not just the fruit but the benefits of the oils in the skin.
"We have about 30 to 40 per cent seconds, just due to scratched fruit from the thorns, so we are looking to find a market for the seconds."
Supply of finger limes has been heavy this summer, although the tree can fruit for most of the year, with the flowering controlled using water-management techniques.
With a bit of a glut, the couple are looking to extend their harvest and hope prices pick-up as the weather cools and less fruit is available.
The couple also hope expand the orchard and are interested in collaborating with other finger limes growers to explore the export market.
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