Although there are no Jewish communities left in Calabria today, Italy's Jewish world is proud of this cultural connection," said Disegni. These towns' Jewish past, just like citron, runs deep through the cultural identity of north-western Calabria. Thrillingly sensual, and zesty in every sense, Helena Attlee is the best of companions as she leads us through sundrenched citrus groves and in and out of history. A book full of surprises, with many curiosities, stories and recipes on the way Deborah Moggach, author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

If you want to find out more about and are already interested in lemons/oranges or Italy, it's a decent book, but I can't say I'd recommend it otherwise. The anecdotes and history are rarely uninteresting, but the 'travelogue used to explore historical contexts' format here pales in comparison to something like The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us, where the individual strands weave together into something meaningful. The bergamot contributes its essential oils not only to Earl Grey tea, but also to perfumes (including the original Eau de Cologne) and some disinfectants If criminal control in Sicily makes the scent of orange and lemon blossom begin to smell, as one visitor to Palermo writes, ‘like corpses’ there is some comfort to be had in reading about the introduction of the mandarin, deriving from two seedlings brought from China to England and shared by Kew with a garden in Malta and thence to Sicily. The comfort is short-lived; the mandarin groves of the 20th century were used as cover for heroin refineries. The Land Where Lemons Grow uses the colourful past of six different kinds of Italian citrus to tell an unexpected history of Italy, from the arrival of citrons in 2nd century Calabria, through Arab domination of Sicily in the 9th century, to slow food and cutting-edge genetic research in the 21st. Along the way Helena Attlee traces the uses of citrus essential oils in the perfume industry and describes the extraction of precious bergamot oil; the history of marmalade and its production in Sicily; the extraordinary harvest of 'Diamante' citrons by Jewish citron merchants in Calabria; the primitive violence of the Battle of Oranges, when the streets in Ivrea run with juice. She reveals the earliest manifestations of the Mafia among the lemon gardens outside Palermo, and traces the ongoing links between organised crime and the citrus industry. I was sent this as a first read copy. I really wanted to like this book and obviously someone who knows much more about books and writing, decided this book was worth publishing so this is just my little honest opinion. I have read National Geographics since I was a child. I have never meet a subject in which I couldn't become somewhat interested.

Fascinating . . . A distinguished garden writer, Attlee fell under the spell of citrus over ten years ago and the book, like the eleventh labour of Hercules to steal the golden fruit of the Hesperides, is the result. She writes with great lucidity, charm and gentle humour, and wears her considerable learning lightly . . . Helena Attlee's elegant, absorbing prose and sure-footed ability to combine the academic with the anecdotal, make The Land Where Lemons Grow a welcome addition to the library of citrologists and Italophiles alike The Times Literary Supplement

If citron growing seems like intensive work, the production of kosher citrons adds an extra layer of complexity. To be certified as kosher, or pure, the etrog needs to come from an ungrafted plant. Cultivating ungrafted plants means giving them lots of extra attention and time as they are more vulnerable to disease, but it also keeps the variety pure throughout generations because there's no genetic mixing with other plants, which scientists say may happen when plants are grafted. A beautifully written book, infused with the bittersweet scent of citrus fruits and the flavour of Italy Guardian Blood oranges get their color from anthocyanins, which can only develop where there is a difference of at least 18 degrees F between daytime and nighttime temperatures in fall and winter Every year at the close of Carnival season, the city of Ivrea hosts a Battle of the Oranges, in which the fruit is indeed used as a missile [footage available here] Summer has been a special time for as long as I can remember, as that's when the rabbis come to visit," said Angelo Adduci, who grew up in a family of citron farmers in Santa Maria del Cedro. "These visits are familiar memories not just for me, but for everyone in town, and Rabbi Lazar is like an uncle to me. It's a part of our childhood, and a happy one."One thing for sure is I was curious why our rental home for the summer was called the limonaia. When I finally did some rudimentary research I realized it was originally built as a hibernation-den for lemons! In the winter months Tuscany gets rather cold and citrus plants like lemon trees need to be sheltered inside. Now that I think of it even in New York my dad, who loves gardening, tends to move our potted lemon trees into the house for winter! Today the Riviera dei Cedri continues to live up to its name, with many small businesses offering the fruit in creative ways. Visitors to the region can even go on citron tours called La Via del Cedro, which include visits to the orchards, nature walks, tastings and strolls around the ancient Jewish quarters. Italy is hands down one of my most favorite places in the world. As a pre-teen I had the fortune of visiting Italy for the first time and staying in a rustic farmhouse (rather a converted limonaia, or orangerie) in the heart of the Tuscan countryside. We were situated perfectly in a small village owned by a family that has been selling internationally renown Chianti wines for generations. I recall slow, summer afternoons relaxing by the pool that overlooked the green valleys below and enjoying the freshest local produce I had ever seen up till that point in my life. There is nothing more thrilling for northern European visitors to Italy than the sight of fruit-laden citrus trees. When Hans Christian Andersen first saw a grove of orange trees, he exclaimed: “Here, here is Paradise.” Helena Attlee has travelled the length of Italy in pursuit of citrus, from Castello near Florence, a garden once owned by the Medici family with trees that are 300 years old, to the slopes of Mount Etna, where the garnet-red blood oranges grow. The secret of their extraordinary colour is temperature: “It’s cold, not warmth, that sets blood oranges on fire on the Etna plain.” But oranges are, apparently, relative newcomers. From the mandarin in China, the pomelo in Malaysia and the citron in the Himalayas, the genus has grown to include a vast number of species. Attlee’s sensual prose brings its extraordinary history to life. Her descriptions of the fruit – with their “yellow hands”, “rotund bodies” and “protuberances like long quizzical noses” – are wonderfully evocative. A beautifully written book, infused with the bittersweet scent of citrus fruits and the flavour of Italy. A paradise of citrus is how I always think of Italy too: a place where ice-cold limoncello is sipped from tiny glasses on piazzas, and everything from ricotta cake to osso bucco is enlivened with zest. What a joy, therefore, to read Helena Attlee's The Land Where Lemons Grow, which tells the story of Italy through its citrus fruit Bee Wilson, Telegraph

En la última Feria del Libro, medio escondido entre pilas y estantes, me topé con un libro que, como suele pasar, me llamó la atención primero por su portada: una naturaleza muerta estilo barroco de limones y naranjas. Era una edición de Acantilado, una de mis favoritas, y el título prometía: El país donde florece el limonero - La historia de Italia y sus cítricos. It appears that lemons first grew wild in Himalayan forests, while all oranges came originally from Assam and Burma, although there is now evidence that some originated in China. These fruits arrived in Italy with the Arabs landing in Sicily in 831 and were first planted in groves on the outskirts of Palermo, especially in the fertile landscape still known as the Conca d’Oro, or golden bowl. This lovely district was no proof, however, against the growth and eventual dominance of the criminal Cosa Nostra: The book reads slowly like a fine wine, and is a mixture of history, travel, art, science, and horticulture, as we are transported all over Italy, meeting interesting personages of the past and present who share all sorts of little-known jewels of knowledge. The book is a history of citrus in Italy which interweaves all these aspects of life.

Customer reviews

The most ancient and aromatic of all citrus fruits, citrons are far less known than their renowned yellow and orange cousins. They resemble large, green lemons, have more peel than pulp, and with a sour-bitter flavour, they are not considered desirable for home consumption. This means that, outside of Calabria, you won't typically find them at the supermarket. urn:lcp:landwherelemonsg0000attl:epub:54c4be59-be5a-49b1-a0c2-95dd045e78f9 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier landwherelemonsg0000attl Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s25ts3v4kn9 Invoice 1652 Isbn 9781581572902 Este librito, escrito por Helena Attlee, una periodista británica experta en jardines italianos, está compuesto de varios ensayos en los que la autora explora las diferentes zonas de Italia donde se cultivan cítricos, y cuenta la historia, particularidades y curiosidades de cada una y del cítrico típico del lugar, ya sean limones, naranjas, quinotos, bergamotas, o alguna de sus peculiares variedades.

Lccn 2015304966 Ocr tesseract 5.1.0-1-ge935 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9917 Ocr_module_version 0.0.16 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-WL-0000218 Openlibrary_edition One type of citron, the esrog, has religious significance for Lubavitcher (Hasidic) Jews, who believe Moses sent to Calabria for the fruit to use during the Sukkoth festival [apparently citrons are the “fruit of the goodly tree” mentioned in Leviticus 23:40]; even today Jews import perfect specimens for ritual presentation Estas son solo un puñado de las muchas e interesantísimas historias que la autora presenta de forma muy sensorial y amena. Again and again, for those of us who don’t yet know the land where the lemon trees bloom, Helena Attlee makes it wonderfully clear that mandarins, marmalade, Eau de Cologne and Earl Grey Tea are no substitute for the real thing. And it is to Italy that Atlee takes us. From the Sicilian terraces full of mandarins and blood oranges, to the Southern Italian groves full of the huge citron and bergamonts. She visits the perfumed gardens of Liguria to see their particularly sour chinotti and witnesses the festival in Ivrea where the inhabitants throw 400 tonnes of oranges at each other. Along her journey she draws together the history of the places and the fruits, sips limoncello on sun soaked terraces, discovers new pastas, meets Rabbis choosing perfect citrons, but mostly lets these fruits permeate her soul.

Open Library

Last October, on the first day of Sukkot, when I opened the white etrog box I'd bought in Berlin from a Chabad rabbi, the citron inside was still perfect. After three months, it hadn't lost any of its marvellous scent. By autumn, the Calabrian farmers are already preparing for the next season, but, Adduci said, "we feel incredibly proud to know that our fruits have reached the homes of hundreds of families around the world." If you love eating, traveling and/or have a sweet spot for Italy, The Land Where Lemons Grow is the perfect read. Each chapter pays homage to a different region of Italy where lemons have been revered and delves into the many different varieties that exist. Little did I know this fruit has such connections with the mafia in Sicily, Sephardic Jews, and Salvatore Ferragamo. Attlee also investigates various trades and recipes related to citrus varieties including bergamot, marmalade, and blood oranges. There are also a number of intriguing recipes you can find in the book. Although I have yet to try any of them (some of them are rather odd and require hard to find ingredients) it is so much fun to read. Her account of this and other gatherings creates a sense of magic among the fruit trees. Also there is her study of bergamot, Citrus bergamia, a cross between a lemon tree and a sour orange grown on a narrow slice of the Tyrrhenian coast at the very edge of Calabria. Here the produce is the most valuable citrus fruit in the world. While the bergamot has important antiseptic and antibacterial properties, its great economic value lies in its essential oil, used as the fixing agent in the perfume industry. I started reading this during a vacation in Tuscany last month. Attlee, a garden historian, does a great job of blending travel, science, and history – and she even includes some recipes, too. Here are a few of the fascinating and unexpected things I learned about citrus fruit: El libro es realmente una hermosura. Me resultó interesantísimo, muy ameno e instructivo. Es un auténtico viaje de los sentidos, en el que se combinan colores, aromas, y sabores con paisajes y personajes únicos.