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: Estas son solo un puñado de las muchas e interesantísimas historias que la autora presenta de forma muy sensorial y amena.

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." 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. The citron plant ( Citrus medica) arrived in this region around 2,000 years ago, following Jewish migrations. According to Helena Attlee, author of The Land Where Lemons Grow: The Story of Italy and Its Citrus Fruit, citron was the only citrus species to grow in Europe until oranges arrived 900 years later, brought across North Africa to Spain by the Moors. The Jews were expelled from Calabria (and all of southern Italy) in 1541, but their connection with Calabrian citron farmers lives on to this day and remains crucial to the fruit's survival.This domestic reminder evokes marmalade, a name derived from the Portuguese marmelo, or quince. In Italy ‘marmalatta’ is a general description for all kinds of jam with the fruit identified separately. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2022-06-25 13:08:12 Autocrop_version 0.0.14_books-20220331-0.2 Bookplateleaf 0010 Boxid IA40579921 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly named Menachem Mendel Schneerson as the founder of the Chabad movement. This has now been updated. 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 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

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. 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 Truly fascinating . . . For many years, Attlee has been collecting evidence for a story of citrus trees in Italy. The result, The Land Where Lemons Grow, is remarkable, excellently produced and essential for all lovers of Italy, their summer libraries and out-of-season itineraries . . . Attlee's book is unmissable for anyone intrigued by the relation between humans' travel, greed and ingenuity and the spread of the plants that we eat, smell and drink Robin Lane Fox, Financial Times

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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]

Predictably given the geography of its explorations this is a book full of digressions. As a writer about Italian gardens and a leader of visiting groups, Attlee can’t help meandering down some alluring botanical or historical pathways with literary references hedging the horticultural hot-beds, from Theophrastus to Hans Christian Anderson, Lampedusa, DH Lawrence and Edward Lear to name a few.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.