A while back, we visited the botanical garden of Florence, which is a 16th-century Medici garden now operated by the University of Florence. It has all the trappings of a historical garden, including an evergreen from 1720 and an orangery.
An orangery!
Nor is this your average, garden-variety (!) orangery. It contains every citrus you can imagine, plus some others. I wish they'd set up a sorbet operation.
Lemon:
Kumquat:
Citron:
Bizzarria:
Yep. Apparently the bizzarria was discovered by a Medici gardener in 17th-century Florence when he Frankensteined an orange and a citron, and the result, rather than being a hybrid, had alternating stripes of orange and citron. The site of this questionable discovery is commemorated today by a street in Florence called "Via del Giardino della Bizzarria" (Street of the Bizzarria Garden).
But that's not the only horror of horticulture in this orangery...
Frankly, if I were that thing, I wouldn't want to approach myself either.
3 commenti:
are citrons and etrogs the same thing? (perhaps that is more of a question for GoodPace). How are they different from regular lemons? (I thought 'citron' was just the european word for lemon).
I think so...
Citrons have more pith and less juice, hence not so good to eat. Better for making liquor-- here they make 'acqua di cedro,' which is very satisfactory. Look for it at your local fermentery!
so does that mean a facility dedicated solely to growing Bizarria would be a Bizarriaery?
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