Book Review: The Land Where the Lemons Grow by Helena Attlee

I was bought this book as a present and was initially apprehensive, yes, I love lemons (see business logo) but I wasn’t sure if a historical deep dive would maintain my attention, luckily, I was proved wrong. This book is hard to define, it is part travel, historical and food focused, it transports you to Italy and makes you feel like you are travelling with a very knowledgeable and entertaining guide.

The book starts within the citrus groves of Tuscany and gives a brief history of the important relationship that has always existed between Italy and lemons. Records show that during Renaissance and Baroque Italy a fashion for collecting citrus trees by the richest and most important families existed and resulted in the creation of many beautiful gardens within Tuscan villas and palaces, many of which exist to this day. During this time the most prized collections were those that produced strange and bizarre fruit that was unique, an example of this is the ‘Buddha’s Hand’ shown below, during development the carpels of the interior fail to fuse and remain separate from each other forming ‘fingers’ that are made entirely from pith!

The book continues it’s travels around Italy giving a very entertaining series of citrus related stories, one of the most disturbing is that of the citrus growing regions of Sicily, which were operated by the Mafia from the beginning of the twentieth century.  During this time the price of citrus fruit would rise and fall dramatically and mafia monopoly over the industry was maintained through fear and violence. During the 1960’s cheap fruit started to arrive in Italy from countries such as Israel and Morocco, the mafia then changed their investment priorities to heroin production using the citrus groves as a cover.

Throughout the book are citrus related recipes, a personal favourite is shown below, it’s a very simple pasta recipe that uses minimal ingredients, is very quick and absolutely delicious, just make sure you use unwaxed, organic fruit.

I thoroughly recommend this book especially if you have an interest in food and Italy, I read it whilst on holiday in Puglia recently and really enjoyed reading it within this beautiful environment, put it on your reading list for your next holiday.