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Pulp ves you lemo non Fiction
T
oday, when you walk into the
the Mediterranean basin after
produce section of a grocery
it was introduced around 325
store, there are dozens of types
B.C. By 200 B.C. it had also
of citrus fruit from which to
started to spread to southern
choose. It’s odd to think they
Italy. Murals in Pompeii
all descended from four ancestors: the citron,
depict citron, and ancient
the pomelo, the mandarin, and the papeda.
documents demonstrate
Citrus first appeared in Asia, where the fruit
that citron was a common
was domesticated at least 3,300 years ago. In
commercial food available in
the beginning, however, the fruit was so acidic
Rome in 301 A.D. Cultivation
that it was considered inedible. Exactly when
of citron was happening
citrus transformed into fruit fit for human
throughout Sicily and the
consumption is not easy to pinpoint. Let’s
Venetian ruled Greek islands,
first look at these ancient fruits to get a better
including Corfu by the fourth
understanding of the history and evolution of
century A.D. The island was
today’s citrus.
even supplying citron to the Jews of France and Germany
CITRON is the oldest known type of citrus.
for their annual Feast of
The name “citrus” now used to describe
the Tabernacles ceremony.
this entire group of fruits is derived from
Several varieties of this first
the word “citron.” Citron seeds dating back
fruit are grown today.
more than 6,000 years ago were found in Mesopotamian
The POMELO (or pummelo)
ruins. Descriptions recorded
comes from southeast
ONA
ABOVE: Pomona, the Roman mythologcial goddess of fruitful
abundance, is said to have been a wood nymph, reigning over fruit trees, gardens, and orchards with a pruning knife. Her name comes from the Latin word pomum, meaning “fruit,” specifically orchard fruit.
by botanists who accompanied
Asia, where it grows wild. It may have been
The new fruit was named after him and, in
Alexander the Great on his
an aboriginal introduction to Fiji and was
some areas, it is still known as shaddock. It
campaigns tell us that
naturalized there. It is commonly cultivated
spread from there to Jamaica and Puerto
citron was being cultivated
in the islands of French Polynesia. In the
Rico. Pomelo never became fully established
last century B.C. the fruit was introduced
in the west, growing mainly as a curiosity
to southern China. It appeared in the
item in private gardens in Florida, the
Caribbean and South America in the late 17th
Caribbean Islands and Mexico. Hybrids of this
century when an English sea captain named
fruit and a local variety of sweet orange were
established
Shaddock stopped at Barbados in the West
found around 1720 on the island and later
throughout
Indies, on his way home from the Pacific.
became known as grapefruit. First attempts
Thinking the climate was appropriate for
at commercial production of the pomelo
growth, he left pomelo seeds on the island
outside Asia were made at the beginning of
where they flourished and produced fruit.
the 1900s in California and Florida.
in Persia and the Middle East at that time. It was adopted into Jewish religious ritual and became
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POM
ELEGANT ISLAND LIVING
