By Sally Gregson.

The arrival in northern Europe of citrus fruits is a history of shanties and legends – of sea-faring travellers and Roman legions. It is now thought that oranges and lemons are natives of the Himalayan foothills. About eight million years ago they diversified and spread into other parts of the Far East before establishing themselves in southern China, Japan and Australia.
It is documented that lemons, with their bitter taste, were first used medicinally at the time of King Nebuchadnezzar where they were said to grow in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Their sharp tangy flavour was found to leaven the heavy spices of Arabic food, and to this day pickled limes and lemons are a feature of tagines and Middle Eastern stews.

The medicinal use of citrus fruits was soon discovered by early travellers to the Americas and the West Indies. It is recorded that Christopher Columbus’s ships were provisioned with limes. By the 19th century the ships transporting prisoners to Australia carried limes to prevent outbreaks of scurvy. ‘Limeys’ became a slang term for such passengers.

Oranges were also grown commercially for the East Indiamen – ships that plied their trade to the Far East from Europe. They brought orange trees to South Africa from China and planted them on the slopes of Table Mountain to supply the long sea voyages between Europe and the Far East.

However, in the cool, dark climes of northern Europe oranges and lemons struggled to grow well – they could never be grown commercially. But the wealthier gardeners of the 17th and 18th centuries would construct ‘orangeries’ with glass walls to grow their oranges and lemons. They were heated on frosty nights with integral coal-fired boilers that warmed up entire walls. Glass eventually replaced tiled roofs and the advent of heated greenhouses arrived – most famously at Chatsworth in 1697.
So, when next you drop a slice of lemon in your gin-and-tonic, think of the centuries of enterprise and ingenuity involved. And raise a toast to those Roman and Arab merchants, and those brave explorers and sailors of times long past.