The Weird History of Grapefruit
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- Опубліковано 18 вер 2024
- Grapefruit is weird even among other citrus fruits.
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Script by THG
#history #thehistoryguy #foodhistory
Only the History Guy would take up the challenge of going down the grapefruit rabbit hole.
conjures so many odd, queer, peculiar and weird images😅👍
Including the grapefruit technique?
You should type "going down" and "grapefruit" into Google. See what videos you find.
This is what The History Channel used to be, and *should* be.
Aliens took over it😮
yeah they found that their ratings didnt support just pure history. it didnt help that they mainly just did WW2 history over and over again. While i love ww2 history, even I have my limits.
@marvthedog1972 I agree, we need a better balance of military and non-military history.
@@jorgecruzseda7551 and ghost hunters. 👻
Iike... MTV...bean counters...corporations...bottom line...& all that.
(How very very...s a d)
I'm 75 years old and in a nursing home, and am taking many perscription drugs. I wondered why there was a note in my file "No Citrus" now I know.
Yep! A lot of blood pressure control drugs, Avoid Grapefruit! 😁 Amlodipine particullaly. In an effort to replace Amlodipine a mlot of research took place. There was an unexpeted side effect of the research. Now known as Viagra!
Grapefruit spikes my Gout condition.
Not even oranges?
G-d bless you sir, I hope you are doing well.
It is such a weird thing with the grapefruits! I hope they breed that out of it. I love grapefruit and all citrus. But it's good to know what's going on with it!
I had plated a dwarf grapefruit tree at my house back in the late 80's. We had an unusually cold frost one year and that tree froze along with most of the other citrus I planted. But the local newspaper said to not touch "dead" citrus trees for some time and sure enough, that grapefruit started to put out new shoots later that year. It grew up into a decent size tree and produces some enormous fruit. They can be up to soccer ball size but have very thick skins to the point the fruit inside is closer in size to a lemon. It took years of research to find out what that tree was, but it seems to be a Cuban Shaddock. Apparently, that's a common root stock for producing dwarf grapefruit trees. So I guess it was the root stock that regrew after the original grafted portion died back from the freeze. I can see the point of the Shaddock being used as an ornamental tree, it is very interesting to look at and nothing seems to bother it.
I wonder if you could graft on some other citrus branches. Sounds like a hardy tree that would be a great host.
How far do the fruits travel when you kick them?
@@chriskucia8348 Never thought of that, but it might work. I should have tried that with my old lemon tree. That tree also seemed die back in the big freeze, but came back to life for several more decades until a year or two ago.
@@westrim Not very far. When one falls out of the tree, it hits with a loud thud, no bounce at all.
We have a Ruby Red grapefruit tree in our yard that produces some of the best tasting and sweetest grapefruit ever. It has done so for many years, and still is, and it is the most long-lived citrus tree we have ever had. We love grapefruit!
You must be in south Texas! Ruby Red forever!
@@tomgarrett9232 NE Florida, and it does great.
Can I come visit?
The Star Ruby was created by exposing Red Ruby seeds with radiation. They are my favorite.
😡lm jealous 😂 ❤
I seriously should not be this excited when I see a video titled "the weird history of grapefruit" 😂
Apparently you saw that video where the lady put a hole in one?
Haha-i felt oddly the same way
This needs to be followed by a history of breadfruit; and while I may be well known for making jokes here, this is not one of them. Breadfruit was once very serious business.
It still is a staplefood in certain parts of Africa and maybe SE Asia if I recall correctly.
@@johnjingleheimersmith9259, It was widely distributed and imported/exported as food for plantations and slave colonies.
Fun fact: Breadfruit caused the mutiny on the Bounty.
@@gemmeldrakes2758 , I had a vague recollection of that, historically....
As a child of the 70's grapefruit was a common breakfast item. Always served with some sugar on top, to be eaten with grapefruit spoons, serrated edges. When we were little, Mom would work it loose from the sections, later we had to. Still today I will occasionally buy a jar of fresh grapefruit sections as it's one of the few prepared fruits, jarred or canned that does not come in some form of syrup. I too take at least one med that warns against grapefruit, but figure in the small quantity consumed, no harm. Hey, I'm still typing this. But I'd argue the main reason for decline is as alluded: who eats breakfast - especially one where you sit down at a table and have an actual meal before school or work. We have compressed our lives to the extent that there isn't time to bother. Long commutes, multi-activity households, two working parents - breakfast - what's that? For me it's instant oatmeal at my desk, computer already fired up. Tap, tap, tap, shovel, tap, tap, tap.
Yes I remember eating grapefruit for breakfast with the sugar sprinkled on top as a child.
So much this - having grapefruit for breakfast is a "sit down and take some time" activity, not something you'd expect most people to take time to do nowadays. And while grapefruit spoons were ubiquitous growing up in FL, how many younger generations know what a grapefruit spoon even is?
With our "pharma enriched" society, I can't help but wonder if being medicated is more the rule than the exception.
Better than sugar is a touch of honey.
"For me it's instant oatmeal at my desk, computer already fired up. Tap, tap, tap, shovel, tap, tap, tap."
You must be kin to me! 😆
There's also the thing with genetics as a reason for why grapefruit declined.
Similar to cilantro, grapefruit has a genetic taste issue with a portion of the population where it doesn't taste good at all to those with that. My uncle has that issue while the rest of my family doesn't. I know it's not the same kind of soap taste as cilantro negative does, but it is a horrible thing
Thanks Lance. Anyone who can make grapefruit interesting for 15 mins or more deserves an award. g
My grandparents had a big pink grapefruit tree (and a supply of the infamous grapefruit spoons). They also had a lemon, a lime, a mandarin orange, and a pecan tree. All of this in a regular neighborhood backyard in Arizona. Across the street was a pomegranate tree. Us kids were always able to get a quick snack while playing.
Sounds lovely!
Cost is my reason for reduced grapefruit consumption.
Maybe less drug consumption and more grapefruit would be healthier?
Easy to say if you don’t have a debilitating disease that the medication relieves or prevents from worsening.
MAHA and MAGA
Drugs as in medication, you silly billy. Medication that keeps people alive.
an O'fallon native here but living in Colorado sine 1973 .. my folks lived in the Collanade until their recent passing ... both into their mid 90's .. appreciate your content ;)
Good morning History Guy and everyone watching...
Shut up
Lemons are a man-made hybrid. Life never gave us lemons.
Yet we make lemonade...
We gave lemons life :3
We give ourselves lemons.
😂❤
Bbbbrilliant!!
I'm 68 and have always loved and eaten Grapefruit (especially the Texas Ruby Red). As a child, we were gixen a Grapefruit in our Christmas Stocking and I would eat Grapefruit whenever I had a chance. But due to the Medications my Doctors have me on now, I'm not "allowed" to have ANY Grapefruit now.
Citrus greening has devastated florida Citrus industry. Gone are the seemingly endless oceans of groves. It would be great if the history guy could do an episode on the florida citrus business.
When a doctor told my Dad not to drink grapefruit juice, because it would increase the potency of his medication, Dad asked: "Why don't I just take a smaller dose?"
no because that would make sense and doctors need to pad their pockets from the drug companies for giving out their drugs
Be afraid of the citrus!!!! Eat more pharmaceuticals!!!!
@@marvthedog1972nailed it
I agree to a limit. What you posted is true of some doctors/medical field. But I worked years with those doctors who ordered what was best for their patients & had magna trouble with insurances & pharmaceuticals. Both BIG lobbyists in politics. 😟😠
Well because you have no way of knowing how much to reduce the dose, or in other words, standardizing the grapefruit to drug ratio, especially because maybe the grapefruit you're eating is more or less potent than some other grapefruit.
When I was a kid in the 1950's an orange or grapefruit was a Christmas treat. Citrus was very expensive in Missouri and the season was short for being able to find them.
I remember this as well...Christmas stockings had apples, oranges, and a variety of nuts....thanks for the memory!
And it was a thing to gift a box of oranges/grapefruit at Christmas
Grapefruit has been ridiculously expensive for years now.
Seriously! A bag with seven to 8 grapefruit was 8.99 about a month ago. They were huge but were kind of dehydrated when we opened them 😢
Not so in Europe where you can get real grapefruit still.
Oh man! You can't mention the "Grapefruit Diet" without mentioning Weird Al's parody of "Zuit Suit Riot"!
😱 There's a giant step backward a quarter Century to the swing Revival of the late 20th and early 21st centuries! Now I'm going to have to go dig out my Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Brian Setzer. 🫶😻
I'm from Texas and grew up loving ruby red grapefruit. But apparently that breed doesn't exist anymore because nobody sells it. You can still get red grapefruit sometimes but mainly all the stores sell is pink in the regular kind that don't taste anything but bitter. Red and Ruby Red are the most popular in taste so why aren't they being sold?
HEB sells Ruby red juice and fruit.
Ruby Red was created by exposing a grapefruit tree to radiation
They are for sale all over the place, and I used to grow some. Where are you trying to get them at?
@@gagenater The true Ruby Red was killed by non-Texas growers who stole the name. The original Ruby Red was a Texas tree, but nobody ever trademarked the name, and Florida growers created a near-copy, not as sweet or red, and called it "Ruby Red" to steal a lucrative market. They more-or-less put the original Texas growers out of business when they couldn't come back after a bad frost killed a lot of trees.
I don't know if it is truly extinct, but it is mostly gone, anyhow. The Ruby Reds you buy now are a different cultivar.
I buy them in Minnesota
I'm 77 years old. I haven't eaten grapefruit since I was a small child. Eating grapefruit was pretty common then, I don't know anyone who eats grapefruit today.
nice to meet you. I eat it
I recall in the 70's it was a thing to gift a box of oranges/grapefruit for Christmas.
My Grandparents ate a grapefruit for breakfast but it had to be the South Texas Ruby Red which they claim was sweeter than the other varieties grown else where
Totally agree!
Your grandparents were epicureans.
Absolutely true! It was all I ate for years! Yummmm!!
One thing I find weird is that wine made from the grape Sauvignon Blanc, is that it's bouquet often has hints of grapefruit.
Makes me miss visiting my Grandparents house in Florida in the 70's. They had so many different citrus trees you couldn't get out of having some sort of fruit with every meal.
Great video. I grew up in the region of Barbados where Grapefruit were thought to be discovered. Interestingly, the first grapefruits I ever tasted as a child were actually quite sweet, and tasted like sweetened grapefruit juice. They came from an old tree on my grandfather's land in that same area of Barbados, a tree which has long since dried up. The fruit was sometimes slightly pink inside. Ironically, Barbados has never had a grapefruit export industry - sugar was always more profitable, and Barbados is too small to compete with the literal tons of grapefruit Florida can produce.
Just one correction:
Colonisation of Barbados began in 1627, not 1527.
The reason Americans stopped eating it because our doctors tells us that it interfers with our medication.
That came to mind with me as well
I love grapefruit and grapefruit juice but I can't eat or drink it because I'm on statins.....
Haven’t been able to have it in over twenty years, and have to check anything that contains citrus.
So we could replace our statin drugs with grapefruit….🧐
@@winschmitt4919Yes! Do anything to get off statins.
Grapefruit is weird, tasting that is. Growing up in the 80s I always found getting grapefruit juice at camp as a punishment because it was so nasty.
Oh yeah, those cans of concentrate! Horrible terrible awful! Didn't get any better in the Navy either LOL
You probably have the recessive gene that can actually taste quinine that is present in grape fruit. All to if water and some weird European sodas
That stuff tastes like they blended up the pith and added enough water to call it juice
Here Here! The only grapefruit my mom bought was the nasty, bitter fruits. I loathed them and the juice (camp and in school) was horrible. I thought it tasted like drain cleaner.
At 10:32 , sacrilege! That's not a serrated grapefruit spoon, and the sections do not appear to have been pre-cut with a grapefruit knife....
Worked room service where we would squeeze fresh orange juice ..... from real oranges..... as well as segmenting fresh half grapefruit for our guests.
You don't want to be spending breakfast fighting with a segment in a posh restaurant or hotel!
Grapefruit cannot be eaten while on Atorvastatin, a heart medication. Wipes out about 2-3 generations of those(including myself) who love grapefruit but cannot have it any more.
10:44 In the earlier 1931 movie, "The Public Enemy" Cagney shoved half a grapefruit into the face of Mae Clarke as part of a breakfast scene.
Yeah- creepy scene
Grapefruit soda and Jamaican overproof rum are an excellent drink on a hot day. Especially if you add some fresh grapefruit juice
8:00 So what you're saying is... Old McDonald had a farm?
E, I, E, I, Ohhh
Koolaid drinker
John A MacDonald was Canadas first Prime Minister.. you tell me he was also in the citrus trade in the south? interesting.... ;)
Ruby Red Grapefruit Cocktail Drinks (including Strawberry flavored) are gifts to the palate!
At 9:38, yet another example that horticulture provides endless opportunity for "graft" ! 🤔😉
Growing up, we had grapefruit with breakfast, cut in half with of course sugar on top. We even had the special serrated spoons to get the sections out.
Ditto!
Good Morning from London, Ontario. 🇨🇦 Love a good grapefruit.
Hello from Simcoe, Ont. (THG asked a Newfie🤔 to name 3 fruits starting with the letter 'N', "A napple🍎,a norange🟠, a napricot🍑." Those Newfies...)
Can't stand grapefruit but I'll watch out of curiosity because I enjoy learning about the history of foods
I grew up surrounded by grapefruit groves in central Florida. It actually snowed when I was four years old. The citrus only gets sweeter from a freeze. Unfortunately those miles of trees have since been replaced by suburbs.
And killed by HuaLongBing (Greening). Monoculture works for the logistics of industrial agriculture (especially juice factories), but is ecologically a terrible idea. Pests come in and wipe everything out.
"Weird, with a weird history"
Same 😂
Many patients, myself included, stopped eating grapefruit because it interacts badly with some prescription medications I take. As those medications became more widely used, those patients had to stop eating grapefruit.
A good friend bought (in 1939) 200 plus acres of Grapefruit Grove near Winter Garden, Fl. He ran that grove until his death a few years ago. He told me that they were called grapefruit because they grew in clusters, like grapes and having spent much time in those groves, It is plain to see the bunches. I've seen 8 on a stem. He was a walking Grapefruit Encyclopedia. I believe that Coca Cola bought his entire crop for years to be used in making Fresca. One could sit in the grove and watch Disney Fireworks nightly all summer.
The homes in Fort Lauderdale built in the 50's and 60's commonly had grapefruit, orange, mango and banana trees adoring their lawns. The pink grapefruit was my favorite.
I’m 74 years old and usually eat 5-6 hand-pealed whole pink grapefruits per week. Wonderful fruit.
Odd how some memories have to be nudged forward. Growing up in the late sixties, early seventies I remember there always being grapefruit in the house. We even had the special little spoons to eat them from the rind like a little bowl.
Back in the Saddle Again Naturally 📣
I am in Pinellas FL right now, near Safety Harbor….we used to have grape fruit and orange tress everywhere….disease, building development, and lack of desire for grapefruit has all but wiped out our trees.
Yea that and insane cloning and monoculture. If you grew from seed you’d not be trying to grow a tree that sprouted over 50 years ago. The bugs have been adapting while you stay stuck in the past. You have to grow from seeds or watch your clones all die eventually.
This video was fun, I eat two large grapefruits every day they can be bought for under a dollar,
and I drink Ocean Spray's bottled pink grapefruit juice the rest of the year. I take no crappy medications for this wonderful food to interact with.
Well, glad that you don't need medications, BUT --- since my ambulance trip to the E-R and then the bigger hospital (Dec. of 22) due to heart, blood, lung problems I have to take 3 kinds of prescriptions. Those prescriptions have worked.
I went to school in Sarasota back in the late 1970’s . There was a grove stand that I could get fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. It was delicious.
I’ve also used grapefruit juice simmered down with sugar and fresh ginger to make a syrup. Once made you can keep it in the refrigerator until you use several tablespoons with chilled ginger ale. It makes a very refreshing drink that could even be tasty in a cocktail.
Sometimes, I make candied citrus peel which can be used to flavor dishes or just nibbled.
The etymology of the word "grapefruit" could also be a slight change in pronunciation of "great fruit" meaning "large fruit".
or not
Weird. I was just in St Augustine and saw these fruits growing in clusters on a plant I didn't recognize. Now I know they are Seaside Grapes. It was also near the pirate museum. And all good stories involve pirates. Yarp.
I have used a grapefruit to charge my phone up to53%
My mom ate 1/2 a Grapefruit every morning. The only thing she would typically eat for breakfast. My dad usually ate the other half. I love them but my husband will not touch them and he buy our groceries. I love to eat one when I see them.
there is a thing called "Delivery"
I love the stuff but was warned about the pharmaceutical thing. When we first introduced our toddler, now age 32, he loved it and called it "grapefood."
I remember when l was a kid my grandma had special, antique grapefruit spoons. They were smaller and flatter than normal spoons and little serrations on one edge. I haven't seen one in years.
Yep. My mom did also. Late 60's early 70's. About once a month she would serve us Grapefruit for breakfast. As soon as she died, that practice (and the half-serrated spoons) went goodbye.
@@gusloader123 👍
That's around the same time as me. 1968ish...
But even then she called em antiques.
Neat to think about.
Haven't thought about Grandma's grapefruit spoons in 50yrs!
That's what I like about this channel...
They show up in thrift stores.
@@erikjohnson9223 Yes they do.
But they get fewer and fewer .
I miss them good ol'days
I love it when the History Guy does food videos. I bought a black currant plant after he did a history of black currants a while back.
I had a relative whose house was built in a former grapefruit orchard. If you let a grapefruit tree grow without pruning, they can get big. You have never had a grapefruit like one that just fell out of a 30' tall tree.
The "Texas Ruby Red" Grapefruit is by far my favorite type.
I tried the grapefruit diet.
But every time I went to the bathroom I'd squirt myself in the eye. 😂
Well, I just wrote "grapefruit" on my shopping list, thanks to you
Growing up in Nova Scotia in the 70's, every Christmas stocking had an orange in the toe. The older folks said it was because they never got oranges, or citrus in general, unless someone found a crate of it washed up on shore. Definition of a windfall, or a blessing. No sense fretting about what happened to the ship. Practical folk live on the shores of our planet.
I love Grapfruit and eat it often and don't care if it affects any of my medication. There's living and there's existing. Learn the difference.
I intend to live, until I die. Period. Long Live Grapefruit!
George Carlin helped the decline when he said that we were idiots for drinking such a vile tasting thing for breakfast every morning.
When I was in Haiti, 35 years ago, we drank a grapefruit drink with Haitian rum. T'was good! Dang! It was called "she-deck" pronunciation wise. Now I know why! After 63 years, finally, my past makes sense. Thanks, history guy!
I can't have grapefruit or grapefruit products because I'm on statins. You can't imagine what it was like to give up my least favorite fruit.
maybe if you ate heathy more you wouldnt be on statins. Incoming b.s.
@@n2cable Even if I did, still wouldn't eat grapefruit.
As a growing boy, I worked for my families citrus Grove. Grapefruit wasn't our most profitable variety, but it got me a lot of cool toys and helped me get through college. God bless Grapefruit!❤
Can anyone name another fruit that has its own specially designed knife, and spoon ?
There are numerous tools for eating grapefruit. I remember one was a splash guard. Keep the squirts under control. 😅 Pineapples and avocados have some tools but not really for eating. I'm fond of my Tupperware orange peeler and it also works on any citrus.
@@paulwoodman5131 , I don't remember ever seeing a grapefruit splash guard but I remember using a special, bent double-edged serrated grapefruit knife with rounded tip, and a wedge-shaped serrated spoon.
I know that tools for the pomegranate would be helpful. 😊
@@nelsaf365 pomegranate... Another strange , but good for you,fruit. I had a tree in my backyard when I was young, peeled a lot of them. Never did figure out the trick.
@@nelsaf365 An OLFA/Exacto knife is good for the pomegranate skin, you can lock the position of the blade with only a tiny bit sticking out of the handle so as not to damage the fruit under the skin. Taking the fruit apart in a big bowl of water helps you separate fruit from pith.
In the 1960's we often had half a grapefruit for breakfast. My mother so believed in grapefruit that we has special spoons to use to scoop out the fruit between the sections. The spoons had serrated edge on the tip to make it easier to push into the fruit.
I, too, ate grapefruit daily. Only stopping a couple years ago because of the interaction with certain drugs. Each study pertaining to a certain drug has been unfounded. Now, semaglutid is being seen as a "interaction" subject.
I remember my high school days in vo-ag selling boxes of Rio Grand Valley grapefruit. Thanks
When i was a kid in the 70's more often than not our breakfast was half a grapefruit topped with honey or sugar- loved it. Haven't had one in years....
In high school in 73 we were told that it took more energy, calores, to eat a grapefruit than you got from it.
I remember as a child back in the 70's liking grapefruit, now I can't stand it. Must have been the Texas red I was eating back then.
Probably more likely just fruits that were more tree ripened and not shipped 1000 miles
My father-in-law lost most of his hearing due to the interaction with grapefruit and his diabetes and blood pressure medication. At least that was the explanation instead of it just being prescribed antagonistic drugs by two separate doctors.
I miss my grapefruit so much. I used to eat a pink grapefruit a day until I had to start taking blood pressure medication and that came to a screeching halt! I really wish I could still eat it. I never took a flu shot and never got sick. I was around sick people all the time as a nurse!
There wouldn’t be anything to stop me from buying it. Unless it was outright rotten. And of course the interaction problem. I used to peel it and eat it like an orange. Anything other than that I would have bought it no matter what!
70's/80's kid here. Tequila and Squirt is, was and always will be one of my favorite drinks.
Just my $0.02
I love grapefruit
I had a German Shepherd and a Saint Bernard that liked it as well! Alas, I am on statin drugs and so I can't eat or drink grapefruit.
Grapefruit is contraindicated with my medication. Considering that I don’t like overly bitter/sour fruit, I’m okay with this.
With all the history of grapefruit being in the Caribbean, I thought for sure there would be some pirates involved.
Growing up, we'd mix the juice of 2 oranges and 1 grapefruit
In addition to the reasons mentioned I think the American palette in particular has switched heavily to preferring sweeter foods and grapefruits kind of bitter taste isnt agreeable for many people now
I'm a child of the 60's and I was served a half of grapefruit and a bowl of sugar....you 'sprinkled' about a 1/4 pound of sugar on top of the grapefruit and the sugar balanced out the sour...
In Texas you can find small outdoor markets that sell sweet red grapefruit and other treats from the Rio Grande valley. They're usually much cheaper and better than what you would find in super markets. Every growing season I buy cartons of red grapefruit, juice them, and add about 50% +/- Topo Chico sparkling water. It's nothing like the stuff you get in containers, and makes a good mix with black rum.
When I was a boy, one of the suppliers to my father's business sent gifts of Florida oranges and Texas grapefruit at Yuletide. The arrival of these fruits was as much a harbinger of Christmas as strings of lights and candy-striped parking meters.
When we went to Sorrento Italy and visited the lemon orchards, I was shocked to find that their lemons are larger than the biggest grapefruit.
The Florida Department of Citrus works very hard to try to get people to eat more grapefruit.
I love pink grapefruit and I miss eating it, drinking grapefruit juice and grapefruit soda. Hopefully, I can get off the medication that prevents me from eating grapefruit. I'd be thrilled if there were a variety that didn't effect drug absorption.
I love grapefruit but you're right, I haven't had one in years. Now I've got to fix that!!!
I still love 1/2 of a Ruby Red Grapefruit, sprinkled with Cane Sugar, for breakfast. I haven't noticed any adverse effects, even though I'm 69 years old & take medications.
I wonder if 21st century Citrus reports are the same pseudoscience that in the 1950's, 60's, 70's & 80's stated: 8 out of 10 doctors recommended this or that Cigarette, or the same pseudoscience of blood letting that killed our first US President, George Washington, on December 14, 1799.
They took away those tiny glasses for grapefruit juice. No one has them anymore. I like grapefruit.
History Guy: You could start a new, separate Series about say, Lizzie Borden, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, etc., called "History That Deserves To Be Dismembered"! 🤗
I spent some years in Sarasota as a kid, and we had several varieties of citrus growing in the yard. Gotta say though, it's the very forward bitterness of grapefruit which is why I never liked it.
Grapefruit from Florida are bitter compared to a Ruby Red from the Rio Grande valley!
Compared to orange or even lemon, both of which are fine for me, I find grapefruits to be unpleasantly bitter.
Damn, I love that sweet ruby red grapefruit, but my doctor says no. It interferes with my blood pressure medication. I hope they come up with a fix.
With all the history of grapefruit being in the Caribbean, I thought for sure there would be some pirates involved. 😊
Grapefruit is my medicine. I have it nearly daily. It's wonderful.
Same
I haven’t eaten a grapefruit since around 1981. My mother used to give it to me all the time in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I think their demise comes from the fact you have to load them with sugar just to make them bearable to eat. I remember trying to eat them straight and they were the most sour/bitter things ever. I’ve lived in Southeast Asia for the last 20 years and have never seen a grapefruit at the grocery store.
I always thought that grapefruit helping with weight loss was an old wives' tale, but I'm surprised that it actually has some merit. Personally I love grapefruits, but man they give me the worst heartburn if I eat them on an empty stomach.
I found a strange orange in the university garden in Padua. It is Citrus trifoliata. Its chloroplast DNA is so different from other citrus that it is thought it might have been captured from an unrelated species. The fruit is very bitter.
This is called "trifoliate orange" in the USA. Its foliage (trifoliate, as clovers are, and deciduous rather than simple and evergreen) is very different from other Citrus, and thus it used to be given its own genus (Poncirus) before molecular phyllogeny displaced morphological taxonomy. It tastes horrible, but is popular as a rootstock because it is well adapted to acidic, sandy soil, is itself far more cold hardy than other Citrus, and seems to marginally increase the cold hardiness of Citrus grafted onto it (mostly because it, being deciduous, seems to force its sap partners into a more dormant state during winter than they would attain on their own). The "Flying Dragon" cultivar also makes some pretty gnarly security fencing.