Citrus - The Most Prized Fruits Of All

North America is fortunate above many other nations, in terms of our continent being hospitable to many different kinds of fruits. The earliest settlers found many delicious fruits already here and brought others with them from Europe. Somewhere in Canada, or the United States, nearly every kind of fruit will thrive. As a result, more kinds of fruit are plentiful and cheap than in other parts of the world.

Around here in Central Florida, chances are high that your home or subdivision was built on either former swamp, cattle pasture, or former orange groves. There was a time in the not-so-distant past that it was common practice to leave one or two citrus trees in the backyard of every new home that was built.

Considering the world as a whole, perhaps the most prized fruits of all are the members of that great plant family of semitropical fruits, known as citrus fruits, which includes (among others) the:

• Orange
• Lemon
• Lime

• Citron

• Grapefruit

Let's Take A Closer Look At Some Of The Most Popular Citrus

The sweet orange is believed to be a native of Southern China, from which country it has now spread to all the semitropical lands in every continent. Probably it was introduced into Europe by the Moors, for the Greeks and Romans do not seem to have cultivated the orange. Yet, it originated in Asia.

It's known under a wide variety of common names, but the most popular ones outside of the United States are the "Chinese Apple" and the German name, "Apfelsine."

The bitter orange, called the Seville Orange, is similar to the sweet orange, except for the flavor. Both appear to be merely varieties of the same species of plant, and though Bitter Orange seeds are said never to produce Sweet Oranges, Sweet Orange seeds sometimes produce Bitter Oranges. This would suggest that the Bitter Orange was the original stock.

There are many varieties of orange. Tangerines and mandarins are small and of delicate flavor, with skins that are loose when ripe, and sections that are easily parted.

Kumquats are tiny olive shaped oranges an inch long and are eaten skin and all, although the skin is thick in proportion to the amount of pulp.

The Blood orange is a sweet orange, grown originally in Malta and elsewhere, which has its pulp mottled with crimson.

Most of the oranges we eat here used to be grown in Florida and in Southern California. Oranges from Florida are usually very juicy. The large seedless Naval Oranges are most gown in California. In the not-so-distant past, whole trainloads from these states were sent out at one time and distributed all over the continent.

We also used to get quantities of oranges from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and other West Indian Islands. There was even a time when we got oranges (and lemons) from Palestine).

Small oranges, then later in the season, came from the Mediterranean -- especially from Spain and Italy. That region is still where many Europeans get most of their supplies.

However, in a global world, our sources of citrus fruits has dramatically changed. It used to be that the United States was the largest producer of oranges, yet today, Brazil now holds that title. After Brazil, the following countries provide the world with their sources of citrus:

• India
• United States
• Mexico
• Italy
• China

The popularity of the orange is largely due to the fact that it has been available for winter use when other fruits used to be scarce.

The tree grows to a height of twenty feet, and where climate and soil are suitable one tree, occupying a space about twelve feet in diameter, will yield from three to four thousand oranges a year.

It lives and bears for about a hundred years if properly cared for. In fact, older trees produce better fruit than the young ones.

The story of the seedless orange is interesting. In 1870, the Department of Agriculture in Washington received from a resident of Bahia, in Brazil, three cuttings of a seedless orange grown in that country for more than a century. However, it was not a very good fruit, and virtually useless for shipping.

The cuttings were sent to a grower at Riverside, California. They were grafted onto a growing orange tree, and two of the cuttings lived. The fruit they produced was very good, and from those two cuttings have come many thousands of trees all producing large seedless oranges of a splendid flavor, now grown all over California and elsewhere.

After the orange, the most important citrus fruit is the lemon, which originated in China and/or India. It has followed the orange tree into all five continents. Though lemons here in the U.S. are mostly grown in California, it used to be that we bought them from the West Indies, and primarily from Sicily.

Like oranges, lemons are picked green and handled with great care, or, as lemon growers say, they "must be handled as carefully as eggs."

After being packed thy are placed in dry, airy stores and there they slowly ripen.

They keep much better than oranges, and fruit picked in December is quite good in July, if air has been allowed to circulate free about it.

Like the orange, the lemon seems to have been quite unknown to the Greeks and Romans. It as introduced into Spain from the East about the twelfth or thirteenth century.

Unlike oranges, lemons are never allowed to ripen on the tree, for if they hang after attaining a certain size they deteriorate.

The citron, which grows wild in Northern India, is cultivated in Europe, America, and China for its thick rind, which is candied as a preserve.

The fruit itself is not eatable when fresh. In the United States, the name is sometimes incorrectly given to a near relative of the watermelon.

Another delicious fruit which Florida, California, and Texas furnish to us is the grapefruit, which is grown in large quantities in those states. It is also grown in the West Indies and in Mexico, but its original home is in the islands of the Pacific.

It is known also as the Pomelo, and two varieties -- one of which has a crimson flesh -- are called the Shaddock.

These are more often grown in Jamaica. They are said to have been introduced into the West Indies by a Captain Shaddock.

The grapefruit belongs to the same plant family as the orange and is cultivated in the same way. Its large yellow balls, often grow in grape-like clusters and it is from this fact that it gets its name. This fruit reaches its greatest perfection in Florida.

The lime used in the making of lime juice is like a small greenish lemon with a very sour juice.

It grows on a dwarf plant often set in hedges.

In the days of sailing ships, when voyages were very long and vessels were unable to carry supplies of fresh meet and vegetables, lime juice was one of the most valuable of all of a ship's stores, for it enabled the mariners who had to live on dried and salted foods to resist the raves of scurvy, which often carried off half a ship's crew.

All the citrus fruit trees are evergreens, with shiny leaves and waxy white flowers. They all derive from a single plant genus, Citrus. Because of this, you can actually graft a lemon, a lime, a grapefruit, etc. all to one orange tree and enjoy the fruits of all.

Most are not aware that the fruits of citrus trees are actually considered "berries." This is because they have a lot of seeds, are somewhat flesh, soft, yet stem from one solitary ovary.

Another little know fact is that Citrus seeds are called "pips" and the white tangled thread like substance attached inside of the peels of citrus fruits are called "pith."

The skins of the fruits contain in their outer rind a large number of tiny reservoirs filled with a valuable and fragrant oil which is very refreshing and is used for a variety of purposes. The skins of many of these fruits, like the orange, lemon, and citron, are candied and used in confectionery for flavoring cakes and puddings, among many other things.