Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Grapefruit

Last weekend we picked a lot of grapefruit. I will leave it to you to figure out which of the grapefruit in the picture is Ruby Red and which is Oroblanco.  Both are a great mix of sweet and a bit tart.  Grapefruits are said to have originated in Jamaica around the 1700's as a natural hybrid of orange and pomelo trees that had been brought to the island.  Fresh grapefruit juice is a joy to have.


But, why do they call it grapefruit?  It doesn't taste anything like a grape and is ten times bigger.  The name "grapefruit" refers to the clusters of fruit on the tree that are said to resemble a cluster of green grapes.   That is a cluster of young ruby red on our tree right now.  An early name for the fruit was "forbidden fruit."  I wouldn't say either name makes a lot of sense or helps in the marketing.  

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