The Walking Lemon
A wonderful exploration of Italian citrus fruits.
—Bee Wilson, Sunday Times Book of the Year
The Walking Lemon opens a new chapter in the history of Italian gardens, skillfully illustrating the Italian citrus culture from Garda to Palermo.
—Jonathan Kitters, Times Literature Supplement Book of the Year
Every successful travel literature must have its own unique care, vision and expression. From the examination of Italian citrus fruits, "Walking Lemon" writes about the ups and downs of citrus groves in Sicily and the Apennine Peninsula over the past thousand years, especially in the past three hundred years, using citrus fruits as a window to show the rich historical, social and cultural changes, not only in the entire Mediterranean region and Western Europe, but also in the vast world as far away as China, India and the Americas. In Helena Atelli's pen, citrus fruits have found their paradise in Italy, and their story is not an idyllic pastoral, or rather, an idyllic pastoral that has been filtered out of blood and tears and darkness. Her stories of the sicilian underworld's long-term domination of the citrus fruit industry, the decline of Italian citrus orchards caused by changes in the international market, and so on, are all the other side of the real past, the historical shadows that are easy to hide under nostalgia. It is precisely because she wrote this side that this book has a historical depth and strength that is difficult to compare with ordinary travel works.
--Luo Xin
Wonderful book excerpts
In the yard outside the factory, chinotto oranges harvested last year are soaked in buckets of brine that makes the fruit a little softer and slightly less bitter. In the past, Besio would soak chinotto oranges in seawater, but now the seawater is not as clean as before, and now they prepare a high concentration of saline solutions on site. "This fruit must be soaked for at least four months," Selvodoo told me, "and it would be better if it was soaked for a year." "They take the Chinotto oranges out of the brine, wash them clean, and then pour people into a spinning bucket. The slightly rough inner surface of the barrel, like sandpaper, can grind away the thin peel of the Chinotto orange and the glands containing irritating essential oils, reducing the bitter taste of the Chinoto orange a little.
We put on paper clothes, put on our hats, and went to the factory floor. The sun was shining outside, and in those wide open spaces, the light mingled with the heat emanating from buckets of scalding fruit. The man in the white dress suddenly emerged from a cloud of smoke and then disappeared again. On the sun-drenched metal table were buckets and plates, filled with peaches, apricots, small pears of cream yellow, dark cherries and oranges, overflowing with a scorched yellow color. In this humble environment, everything is painted white or made of stainless steel, and piles of fruit sparkle in the sun like jewels.
"We have to put the chinotto oranges in boiling water and cook them for at least three hours because they're too hard." Servodio said, "Then pour them into a solution of hot water and 20 percent sugar." "That's the beginning of making preserves, a process like a cooking version of preservatives, removing all the moisture from the fruit and replacing it with crystalline sugar, and in this way, every Chinoto orange becomes a perfect Chinoto orange preserve." Servodio did not overlook the details. "We have to keep the temperature of the fruit at 60 degrees Celsius," he said, "to prevent it from fermenting." Put it in a tank for ten days, and after the water has evaporated, we fill it with sugar. "This process is terminated only when the concentration of sugar reaches 75 percent. I thought, how fair that is. When made into preserves, chinoto orange may corrode your teeth, but as a medicine to treat scurvy, it can save those teeth.
Finally, it's time to try the chinoto orange preserves soaked in syrup, which is too sweet for a person who doesn't like sweets very much. "Okay, let's eat." I said, poke the thing with a toothpick and shove it whole into my mouth. Then, the first Chinoto orange preserve I ate began to show its unexpected magic. Its peel was still a little hard, but by the time I bit it inside, the flesh was already very soft. Take a bite and the pungent taste will come up, and the sweetness of the preserves can alleviate but not mask the bitterness of this fruit. This bitter and sweet taste is the essence of all orange tastes, and for a long time after swallowing, it leaves a feeling that almost hisses in the mouth. Even if this feeling disappears, it will make your breath full of fragrance. I was hooked on the smell. "Can I ask for another one?"
Introduction to the "Distant Translations" series
Rediscover the world in which you live
Follow travelers and explorers and record the present
Feel the richness of history and explore the meaning of life
Edited by Professor Luo Xin of the Department of History of Peking University and recommended for the preface, the series of books selects masterpieces of historical travel literature, which are both classic travelogues and travel guides.
The Faraway Translation Series is the key to opening a new world, presenting us with the history and culture of different civilizations, life in a foreign land; a journey on paper unfolded with words, an adventure without leaving home, it tells us the vastness of the world, the thickness of history and the diversity of culture, it also witnesses the boundaries of human curiosity, that is, the distance.
2021 Bibliography of the Faraway Translation Series
Turn Right to Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City Step by Step
Walking through the Hindu Kush Mountains: Deep into the Interior of Afghanistan
Enlightenment: A Pilgrimage to India
Agave Oil: Lost in Mexico
Walking Lemons: A Tour of Italy's Citrus Groves