Glorious Grapefruit

Grapefruit growing in clusters like grapes!

 

With the arrival of Christmas just days away, the historical significance of fresh fruit cannot be underscored. Common in tropical climates, citrus fruit was rare and exotic in the twentieth century, and often children wished only for an orange for Christmas. By the 1950’s gift boxes of fruit and nuts were a special and much appreciated gift and are still presented to business acquaintances.   

Among the most popular citrus fruits is the grapefruit which has an interesting past. An ancestor of the grapefruit, the pomelo (Citrus maxima, or Citrus grandis) originated in Asia where it was discovered by Captain Shattuck of the East India Company. He took seeds from his travels to Barbados and planted them in 1696. It is one of the four original citrus species and the grapefruit as we know it is love the child of a polemo and a sweet orange.  Unnamed for several centuries, it was eventually called grapefruit for its unusual habit of growing in clusters as do grapes.

The grapefruit was originally called ‘forbidden fruit’ and was first documented by Rev. Griffith Hughes in 1750. In his book entitled ‘The Natural History of Barbados’ he lists it as one of the seven wonders found on the Island.

The fruit was brought to Florida in 1842 by Count Odet Phillipe, a settler of French descent who also introduced cigar making to what is now the Tampa Bay area. The climate was perfect for growing citrus and the Count was later joined by Kimball Chase Atwood who founded the Atwood Grapefruit Company in the 1890’s. The largest grapefruit company in the world, the Atwood Company produced 80,000 boxes of fruit annually and discovered the pink grapefruit in 1906.

In the early nineteen hundreds the fruit became so universally popular that silver companies began producing grapefruit spoons, which are tapered to allow the bowl to slip easily into the segments of fruit which surround the cored center.

A spectacular Christmas dessert is broiled grapefruit. For the dessert, cut the fruit in half, core and cut 2/3 around each segment leaving 1/3 intact to secure the others. Douse it with a smattering of Cointreau (an orange flavored liqueur), sprinkle with brown sugar, place a scarlet maraschino cherry in the center and broil until the brown sugar bubbles. It is an elegant show stopping finale!