🍊 Sweet oranges per se, were not in Europe until the 15-16th century when brought by Genoese and Portuguese from their travels to Asia, however, we have had before around the Mediterranean area something called ''citrons'' (Citrus medica) that ancient Romans used as remedies for poisoning ailments according to the description of Theophrastus, ‘’It is also useful to improve the breath, for if one boils the inner part of the fruit in a dish or squeezes it into the mouth in some other medium, it makes the breath more pleasant.’’
🍊 During the Middle Ages, the citron was used for treating seasickness, scurvy while also being considered an antibiotic (the oil of cedrate-limonele). While the very first mentioned origin of a citron-type fruit appears in the Himalayan foothills about 8 million years ago, nāraṅga was the Sanskrit word for orange tree (funnily enough, naranja means orange in Spanish), these oranges were finally available in the European markets around 15th century.
🍊 The Italian city of Savona has records of the first mention of sweet oranges in Europe, from 1471-1975 in a manuscript by Bartolomeo Platina written for Pope Sixtus IV. The manuscript is preserved in the Vatican Library. Spanish settlers took the fruit to Florida between 1535 and 1565, and the fruits thrived in the subtropical climate. Meanwhile, back in the Old World, Portuguese maritime explorers were about to discover an even more favourable variety of the orange.
🍊 The Portuguese were able to take control of several Asian port cities, including Goa in India. While the Portuguese were unsuccessful in taking control of the Indian Ocean trade, largely due to the fact that they had nothing to sell, they did bring an even more delicious variety of the sweet orange back to Europe. in 1498, Vasco da Gama writes and describe them as “very good oranges, much better than those from Portugal”. By 1646 sweet oranges were well known and commonly enjoyed around the Mediterranean.
🍊 While Christians like to explain oranges as being associated with St. Nicholas helping those in need and representing gold, the more realistic explanation of why we associate oranges with Christmas has to do more with oranges being a fruit for the aristocrats 1700-1800s, those that afforded oranges and bought them, usually ladies of good family during wintertime. Trading ships would arrive to British and other Northern European ports with sweet oranges from southern lands, sometimes sailors would throw a fruit or two to the children waiting by the dock and waving to the incoming trading ships with goods for the richest. Oranges were a luxury good around this time of the year, making it a very special Christmas present in the stocking indeed.
Stay tuned to my next post as it will continue with a little story from the 1700s that starts with a couple oranges.
