Florida the star of grapefruit league

White Duncan grapefruit could be a dry white like Sauvignon Blanc. Ruby Red? A full-bodied Cabernet or a middle-of-the-road Merlot? After a few moments teetering between inspiration and frustration, the Sunrise Citrus co-owner gives up trying to categorize the fruit she's selling at Fort Myers' downtown produce market.

"You can't generalize," she concludes.
It's no wonder even a citrus grower struggles to describe the flavor of grapefruit, which is now in season. Scientific research has found no taste difference among grapefruit varieties, according to the Florida Department of Citrus.

So why do some taste sweeter than others?

"Grapefruit get sweeter the longer they're on the tree, so you should only pick them as you need them," says Don Hanak, a master gardener and owner of D&B Nursery in Port Charlotte. "Cold weather sets the sugar and makes them sweeter."

Good to know now that those golden orbs are dangling from Southwest Florida trees like so many Christmas ornaments on steroids. That means plenty of fruit to squeeze into cocktails, toss into salads and marinate with seafood.

Florida's grapefruit season runs roughly from October through June, according to the state. The Sunshine State is the largest commercial grower of the fruit, boasting a $9.1 billion industry. Japan, the biggest buyer of grapefruit in the world, plucks 40 percent of Florida's crop, the citrus department says.

Florida's primary varieties are Ruby Red, Pink, Thompson, Marsh and Duncan, but there are many other cultivars. Their skins range from pale green-yellow to blushing pink, with flesh that covers an even wider spectrum from buff to pink to garnet.

The white, seed-ridden Duncan is widely considered the earliest variety to arrive in Florida from Caribbean and western Atlantic islands and was the leading cultivar through the middle of the last century. By 1950, 75 percent of Florida's grapefruit crop was of the pink or red seedless type, according to Julia Morton's seminal "Fruits of Warm Climates."

Waite, the Buckingham grower, doesn't even bother bringing white grapefruit to the produce market anymore. The bitter truth is most buyers prefer pink and red fruit, she said.

"The old-timers like the white -that's what they grew up with," she says. "We carry them, but we don't have many customers. The newer generations don't even know them."

Last week, Waite was selling grapefruit in five-pound bags for $3 to $4. Sweetbay Supermarkets' fell into the same range, while Winn-Dixie had a buy-one-bag-get-one-free special for $5.99.

Of course, if you or a neighbor or friend are lucky enough to have a grapefruit tree, you're enjoying the seasonal bounty for free.

And there are plenty of good reasons not to let the fruit go to waste. It can keep two to three weeks in the fruit/vegetable compartment of a refrigerator.

Pink and red varieties get their pigment from lycopene, which has been associated with decreasing the risk of ovarian cancer and prostate cancer, as well as helping prevent heart disease.

Like other citrus, grapefruit brims with Vitamin C, which is good for your skin, gums, immune system, heart and more, according to Fort Myers dietitian and author Jamie Gates. And the fruit's high soluble fiber content helps decrease cholesterol - more so if eaten whole as opposed to juiced, she says.

In fact, grapefruit has been mentioned among the so-called "superfoods" packed with essential plant-derived nutrients that are important to human health.

"In terms of fiber and nutrients, it's right up there with blueberries," Gates says.


Source: news-press.com

Publication date: 11/14/2008

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