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<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">At Linux gatherings, it is not uncommon to have a long discussion about which is "the best" distro. Or debates about EMACS and that other editor.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">When serious gardeners get together, the group can split between those who favor Meyer lemons and those who like Lisbon or Eureka. The latter varieties are the ones sold in stores and are essentially indistinguishable after harvest.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div>
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On Friday, December 9, 2022 at 08:58:03 AM PST, Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> wrote:
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<div>I wrote:<br clear="none"><br clear="none">> It'll be raining hard, so this is an indoors CABAL gathering.<br clear="none">> You are still all welcome! We will have hearty winter food, plus <br clear="none">> whatever desserts I'm inspired to make with a large number of <br clear="none">> Eureka lemons from a friend. Lemon meringue pie, perhaps?<br clear="none"> ^^^^^^<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Actually, _much_ better, these are (sweet, hybrid) Meyer lemons.<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_lemon " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_lemon </a> These are a hybrid<br clear="none">between regular lemons (about which see, below) and mandarins.<br clear="none">Meyers really are the best lemons!<br clear="none"><br clear="none">(If you visit on Saturday, take some.)<br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://www.allrecipes.com/gallery/meyer-lemon-recipes/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.allrecipes.com/gallery/meyer-lemon-recipes/</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/meyer-lemon-recipes-we-love/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/meyer-lemon-recipes-we-love/</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://www.epicurious.com/recipes-menus/meyer-lemon-recipes" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.epicurious.com/recipes-menus/meyer-lemon-recipes</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://insanelygoodrecipes.com/meyer-lemon-recipes/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://insanelygoodrecipes.com/meyer-lemon-recipes/</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://www.brit.co/meyer-lemon-recipes/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.brit.co/meyer-lemon-recipes/</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://www.sunset.com/food-wine/kitchen-assistant/meyer-lemon-recipes#scrambled-eggs-meyer-lemon-salsa-verde" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.sunset.com/food-wine/kitchen-assistant/meyer-lemon-recipes#scrambled-eggs-meyer-lemon-salsa-verde</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://cookingchew.com/meyer-lemon-recipes.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://cookingchew.com/meyer-lemon-recipes.html</a><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">If you want some differently-geeky reading, some time, browse<br clear="none">encyclopaedia entries about citrus species.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Quick: Is orange a citrus species? Lemon? Grapefruit? Lime?<br clear="none">Calamansi? Tangerine?<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Nope. Not a one of those is. Everyone of them was a human-created <br clear="none">hybrid, some of them (such as grapefruit) created only a couple of<br clear="none">hundred years ago.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Every single citrus variety we know descended from crosses of two or<br clear="none">more of these _actual_ citrus species:<br clear="none"><br clear="none">1. Mandarin (Citrus reticulata). You know these, rather like an<br clear="none">orange but smaller, sweeter, and with a stronger taste.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">2. Kumquat. Smaller than a mandarin (olive-sized), a bit bitter. The<br clear="none">trees are cold-hardy. (I have one.) Taxonomy is disputed, because<br clear="none">citruses hybridise so easily. They used to be considered one species,<br clear="none">Citrus japonica, but recent genetic anaysis suggests there may be three<br clear="none">kumquat species, Citrus hindsii, C. margarita and C. crassifolia, with<br clear="none">C. x japonica being a hybrid of the last two.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">3. Pomelo (Citrus maxima). Big, and tastes like a sweet grapefruit,<br clear="none">which is no accident because grapefruits arose as a hybrid primarily of<br clear="none">the pomelo (accidentally crossed, around 1692, in Barbados, with<br clear="none">oranges, which are themselves a hybrid).<br clear="none"><br clear="none">At this point, we've exhausted the familiar (true) citrus species.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">4. Ryukyu mandarin (Citrus ryukyuensis). A wild citrus from Japan's <br clear="none">outer Ryuku Islands (such as Okinawa).<br clear="none"><br clear="none">5. Mountain citron (Citrus halimii). Wasn't discovered and catalogued<br clear="none">until 1973. Found wild across Southeast Asia. Edible but sour fruit.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">6. Citron (Citrus medica). Fragrant, thick-rinded, rough fruit. <br clear="none">Known in ancient Europe through trade and conquest. Ritually <br clear="none">significant in Judaism (for the feast of Sukkot) under the Hebrew name<br clear="none">"Etrog" (אֶתְרוֹג).<br clear="none"><br clear="none">7. Kaffir lime (Citrus hystrix). Leaves and rinds are used in Thai <br clear="none">cooking, and others around Southeast Asia.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">8. Mangshanyegan (Citrus mangshanensis). Wild citrus, natives to the<br clear="none">mountain forests of China.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">9. Ichang papeda (Citrus cavaleriei). Native to southwestern and<br clear="none">west-central China. Fruit is bitter/sour, doesn't have much juice.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">10. Clymenia. Lots of controversy about its taxonomy -- again,<br clear="none">because of citrus's hybridising habit. See the Wikipedia entry<br clear="none">to see the arguing. Native to Papua New Guinea.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">11. Australian lime. More controversy. Found in the wild in Australia<br clear="none">and Papua New Guinea.<br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">Some of the familiar citruses that are _not_ species:<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Orange (Citrus x sinensis) is a cross of mandarins with pomelos.<br clear="none">Didn't reach Europe until the Moorish era in Spain, and wasn't<br clear="none">familiar in the rest of western Europe until early modern times.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Lemon (Citrus x limon) is a cross created in ancient times between<br clear="none">citron and bitter (Seville aka Chinotto) orange. Bitter orange (Citrus<br clear="none">× aurantium) was a cross between pomelo and mandarin.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Lime is a term referring to any of several ancient-world hybrids, the<br clear="none">most common being Persian lime (Citrus × latifolia), a cross between<br clear="none">lemons and the "key lime" (Citrus × aurantiifolia), which in turn was a<br clear="none">papeda/citron cross. Mexico is a huge producer of the Persian lime.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Our concept that "lemons" and "limes" are different things is mostly<br clear="none">an artifact of language. "Lime" as a word in English is descended from<br clear="none">the Persian (Farsi) word "limu", which in Persian means lemon.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Tangerine is a weird one. Notice you don't hear the word much, any<br clear="none">more? That's because it was sort of(?) a marketing name, and fell<br clear="none">out of fashion. A fellow in Florida in the 1840s named Major Atway<br clear="none">imported and grew a citrus from Tangier, Morocco, and called it<br clear="none">"tangerine" in US sales. This varietal came to be called the Dancy<br clear="none">tangerine, which was wildly popular in the US because its skin peels <br clear="none">off easily. However, since the 1970s, it's fallen out of the US<br clear="none">commercial market, because it's too delicate to handle and ship well,<br clear="none">is susceptible to a fungal disease, and bears fruit well only in<br clear="none">alternate years. But it's still grown widely for personal use.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Once the geneticists got busy on tangerines, they found that... well,<br clear="none">it's complicated. Major Atway had imported from Tangier two different<br clear="none">hybrids, whose mixes are still being disputed.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Calamansi (from the Philippines) is a hybrid of kumquat and (probably)<br clear="none">mandarin.<div class="ydp9bdf799dyqt4240705741" id="ydp9bdf799dyqtfd12499"><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">_______________________________________________<br clear="none">conspire mailing list<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="mailto:conspire@linuxmafia.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">conspire@linuxmafia.com</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/conspire" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/conspire</a><br clear="none"></div></div>
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