http://www2.dailyprogress.com/lifestyles/2012/mar/07/hilde-lee-behind-rind-grapefruit-history-ar-1742252/
Behind the rind: Grapefruit history
By: HILDE G. LEE | Daily Progress food columnist
Published: March 07, 2012
Have you ever tried to eat a segmented grapefruit half with your left hand when you are right-handed? Its not easy, and thats what I had to do recently because I had injured my right hand. All other household and cooking activities also became chores. Even using the computer requires that I back to the old hunt-peck-and-cuss method.
I found the grapefruit even with a curved grapefruit spoon to be, the biggest challenge of my temporary incapacity. Luckily, it did not last too long. However, it did make me wonder about some historical facts about grapefruit. I had time on my hands make that one hand to do some research.
The grapefruit is unique in being a fairly new species of fruit. It is not simply a new variety or a hybrid. It is a full-fledged species that appeared in America long after the first colonists had arrived.
Surprisingly the grapefruit is only about two hundred years old an infant in a world where most foods are thousands of years old. Its origin is a mystery even to the most experienced botanists. It is known by three names pummelo, shaddock and grapefruit.
The first mention in the world of the existence of the grapefruit was by John Lunan in his horticultural journal of the early 1700s. He reported that there was a new fruit being grown in Jamaica, which tasted like a grape. This was probably the origin of the name grapefruit. About the same time Griffith Hughes, another botanist, described this new fruit as the forbidden fruit of Barbados.
Grapefruit does not taste like grapes. Consequently subsequent authors produced another explanation. They claimed that the name came from the fact that grapefruits grow in clusters like grapes. Although this is not true, some varieties of grapefruit grow close together, giving the illusion of a cluster.
After some hesitation, the grapefruit was accepted as a genuine species in 1830 and given the official name of Citrus paradisi. Its place of birth seems to have been Jamaica. This is nowhere near the place of origin of other citrus China, Malaysia, Indonesia and some of the Pacific islands.
But why Jamaica? There are two theories. One is that it was a natural cross between two other citrus species, which had been brought to the New World. The other is that it came about through mutation. In the first case, one of its parents and in the second, its only parent probably came from Malaysia or Indonesia. I Yin in 1500 B.C first mentioned this type of fruit in Chinese writings.
To make the story of the grapefruit even more confusing, its other two names pummelo and shaddock refer to different varieties of the same species. They are both larger than the grapefruit, have coarser flesh and are more tart. In England, they were eaten liberally dusted with sugar. They are most often used in jams and other preserves. One overcritical American gardening encyclopedia terms them thick-skinned and worthless.
Nature had been kind to the grapefruit and endowed it with favorable qualities. The grapefruit tree comes into bearing early, producing commercially profitable crops four to six years after planting. It produces large crops about 1,300 pounds per tree. It requires little care and can survive a moderate, if brief, amount of frost. Trees growing where there is some seasonal variation in temperature yield better-tasting fruit.
The grapefruit tree, which ranges from 20 to 40 feet in height, is more resistant to wind than other citrus trees. It adapts well to different soils. One of the tastiest varieties of grapefruit is grown in the Sahara Desert. However, it is, unfortunately, too thin-skinned to be shipped elsewhere.
Grapefruit is now being grown in the Mediterranean area, but does not attain the same quality there as in its native Western hemisphere.
Ninety percent of the worlds grapefruit is produced in the United States in California, Florida, Texas and Arizona. The main variety of grapefruit is the Marsh Seedless, which has some seeds. No citrus fruits are entirely seedless; in the trade, seedless means not more than five seeds per fruit.
Texas grows pink grapefruit, but some of these grapefruits have yellow juice. Many prefer the pink grapefruit because its juice tastes slightly sweeter. Food experts claim that Americans like color in their food, hence the preference for pink grapefruit.
Half of the American grapefruit crop is processed as juice or canned fruit segments. As in the case of the orange, Florida grapefruit is better for juice, while California grapefruit is preferred for eating fresh. This is probably a result of the amount of rainfall.
Commercial cultivation of grapefruit began in Florida in 1890, 60 years after the species had been recognized. Today, grapefruit is the second most important citrus fruit in the world, after the orange. It did not become common in Europe until after the Second World War, and even in the United States until after the First World War.
In the United States, the grapefruit gained familiarity during the Depression, which followed the stock market crash of 1929. This came about because citrus fruits, including grapefruit, could be had free of charge for orange food stamps. (The stamps color and the name of the main citrus fruit was only a coincidence.)
This brought grapefruit to families that had previously been so ignorant of it that welfare boards received the same complaint from a number of housewives. They said that the housewives boiled the grapefruit for hours and it still remained tough. Maybe, in a far-fetched way, that is where the idea of broiling grapefruit came from.
Enjoy.
