- Did you know that lemon trees are evergreen
and can produce fruit all year long?
And that it was Christopher Columbus
who first brought lemons to the Americas?
You'll learn what that's all about, the history of lemons,
and so much more in this episode of "What Am I Even Eating?"
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Like other citrus, lemons are technically a berry.
Other berries include avocados,
bananas, cucumbers, and grapes.
And while mostly yellow,
lemons can also be green or even green and yellow striped,
depending on the variety.
Some have a pinkish flesh, like grapefruit,
some look otherworldly,
and some are ribbed for your pleasure.
At first, lemons were not wildly cultivated for food.
They were ornamental, like tomatoes.
Their origin story is a little fuzzy,
but science and a genomic sequencing suggests
that lemons descended from a single ancestor
some 8 million years ago.
Native to the Himalayas,
this baby mama resembles a modern day pepita.
And from this ancient Asian ancestor
came 10 other wild fruit trees including pomelos,
mandarins and kumquats,
and some of which are no longer with us today.
Lemons, along with oranges, grapefruits and limes,
and all other citrus are hybrids derived
from these 10 trees.
And that genomic study also found
that lemons are crossed between bitter oranges and citron.
By 200 AD, lemons had reached southern Italy
and by 780, they were being cultivated in Persia,
what is now modern day Iran,
Iraq, and Egypt.
Sometime around the 10th century,
Arab traders began distributing lemons
around the Mediterranean
and their widespread popularity
is kind of how they got their name.
Lemons were first called lemons in the late 1400s.
The word is based on the old French word limon,
suggesting that lemons came to England from France.
Limon derives from the Italian word,
which also is limone but with an E on the end,
which drew its inspiration from the Arabic word laymun
and the Persian word limun.
There you go.
By the 15th century,
the lemon had swung into full culinary use
and farmers began the first major crop
of lemon trees around Genoa, Italy.
And thank God, because as you know, lemons have many uses.
The juice is obviously used in everything
from beverages to marinades.
But the peel can be made into recipes like lemon pepper.
Oils are used in fragrances, cleaners, and more.
The leaves are even used in teas.
There's so many uses for lemons.
Limoncello, which originated in Sicily around 1900,
is a popular way to use up those peels and fight food waste.
You can also use them as a natural greaser for your oven.
Add lemons to water to an oven-safe dish
and bake it at 350 degrees until the water boils.
Turn off the heat.
After the steam settles, wipe down the inside.
Boom, natural cleaner.
Eventually lemons made their way to the US.
Christopher Columbus brought them to the New World
when he planted lemon seeds
on the island of Espanola in 1493,
one of the first European settlements in the Americas.
Of course, he also brought slavery, massacre, and disease
for the island's indigenous people, the Tainos.
Yay, humans. Yay.
Subsequent Spanish conquest throughout the New World
helped spread lemon seeds even further still.
And by the 19th century,
lemon trees were being planted regularly
both in Florida and in California.
By the 1890s, Florida was the leader in citrus
with around 3 million trees in cultivation.
However, a bad freeze in December of 1894
destroyed that year's crop and damaged many trees.
The first of a one-two punch
as the following February,
the region was hit again,
destroying many of the already weakened trees.
This, what has been coined the Great Freeze,
set the state's citrus industry back 10 years.
California already had a modest lemon industry
in the state's southern region
with around 62,000 trees in cultivation at the time.
California stepped up and rapidly expanded its lemon groves,
which was up to 800,000 trees by 1901
and led the state's second gold rush,
making it a leader in fresh citrus.
But this did displace other commodities growing
in the region.
Find out how lemons bumped walnuts from SoCal
to the Central Valley in my video on the history of walnuts.
There are countless varieties of lemons
grown throughout the world
with Argentina, Chile, India, Mexico,
and, of course, the US being significant producers.
California grows 93% of all US lemons
and 80% of all US-grown fresh citrus for that matter.
I mean we do grow over 50% of the nation's fresh produce
so #HumbleBrag and all that.
In California, there are three major districts
when it comes to citrus farms.
District one is the Central Valley,
which is the largest area
and more than half of the state' citrus production
and one of the primary regions for naval oranges.
But Valencias are also grown there,
along with lemons and grapefruits.
Over half of the state's tangerines also come
from this area.
District two is the Coastal Region
and the major producer of lemons.
Oranges from this area are primarily Valencia.
Lastly, district three, the Desert Region,
which is the primary location for grapefruit production,
but also has lemon farms.
It takes about 77 gallons of water
to produce just one pound of lemons.
And a full acre needs over 1.3 million gallons
every growing season.
So use the juice, use the peel, use it all.
Over 40% of all US-produced food goes to the bin,
simply thrown away.
And food waste accounts for 8%
of all greenhouse gases globally.
You can do your part to fight food waste
by eating what I like to call root to leaf.
Eat it all. Make some limoncello.
In California, the most common lemon variety grown
is the Eureka Lemon,
also known as the Four Seasons Lemon,
for its ability to produce both fruit
and flowers throughout the year.
We also grow Lisbon and Meyer lemons.
Trees are planted late winter to early spring.
This happens after the trees are grafted.
That's when the above ground fruit
producing part of the lemon tree
is joined with a root stock,
which is the below ground part.
The above ground part, called the scion, is chosen
for the variety of lemon it produces.
And the below ground part is selected for its heartiness.
It can take lemon trees up to three years to produce fruit
and up to five years to produce a full crop.
And they can continue to produce fruit until they die.
The lifespan of an average lemon tree is about 50 years,
but they can live up to 100 or even longer.
Lemon trees are evergreen.
Flowering generally occurs during the spring.
Fruit then develops over the summer
and can take up to six months
or even up to a year to fully ripen.
It's this extended ripening period
is why they can have fruit and flowers
on the same tree at the same time.
Lemon trees can be pretty prickly
and the lemons must be harvested by hand.
So let's take a moment to thank the skilled labor
that makes this happen.
Depending on how they grow and where they're grown,
lemons are harvested at different times.
in the Central Valley region, district one,
lemons are picked from October through June.
In the Coastal Region, district two,
they're harvested year-round.
And in district three, the Desert Region,
they are picked from August through January.
And while lemons look great on a bowl on the counter,
it's the worst way to store them.
Keep them in a loosely closed bag in the fridge.
Stored this way, I've had my fresh lemons
last up to six months.
And this works for limes, grapefruits, and oranges.
And that's how lemons got from India to California to you.
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