Lemon

A citrus fruit, pale yellow and thick-skinned, said to have originated in the Indus Valley during the Bronze Age (about 2500 to 1700 BC). In 1493, Christopher Columbus introduced lemons to the New World and by the mid-1700s they were cultivated in California. Lemons, Citrus limon, are cold-sensitive. With warmth, sun and irrigation, lemon trees thrive in soil types ranging from clay to sand - even poor soil - as long as it's well drained, so the steep, rocky and apparently inhospitable slope of the Mediterranean coast have proven perfect for their culture. Sicily produces 90 percent of all lemons, and southern California produces 80 percent of the American crop but, in the Western Hemisphere, significant commercial crops - which must be handpicked - are also harvested in Arizona, Florida, southern Mexico and parts of Central and South America.

The acidic juice enhances the taste of soft fruits, fish, seafood and tea; flavors fillings, pies and puddings; adds pectin to jams and jellies; and is used in mayonnaise, sauces and salad dressings (often as a substitute for vinegar). Coated in lemon juice, cut fruits, such as apples, won't brown in the air. Sometimes dried for cattle fodder, the aromatic rind is candied or pickled for human consumption. Scraped from the skin, the zest is used fresh or dried in savory and sweet dishes, baked goods and confections. Fragrant oil, pressed from the rind, is used in perfume. In Indian, lemons are preserved in mustard oil; in Morocco, they are salted and kept in their own juice to serve with tagine.

For centuries, lemon juice has been used in remedies that bleach freckles, reduce fevers, ward off colds and promote "regularity" to name a few. The fruit's most famous medical role, perhaps, is the prevention of scurvy in sailors of the British Navy, which instigated regular rationing of lemons in the early 1800s, several decades after a study by Naval Surgeon James Lind had shown their efficacy. See also Meyer lemon.

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