Seldom are our assumptions about lemons questioned. However, Vicente Todolí is revealing to me the hidden side of citrus on a cool November morning along Spain’s verdant Valencian coastline, and it’s not like anything I’ve seen on store shelves.
In his sun-soaked orchard, the strangest and most amazing specimens are arrayed on a table. A citron with warts the size of a newborn infant, an octopus-shaped fruit with bulging tendrils, and a vibrant pear-shaped fruit splashed in a tie-dye of yellow and green are among them.
Not only are they not completely secure, but they are also quite different from what I had anticipated. “You will get burned,” Todolí says, gesturing to a grass-greenbergamot. Because the oil is phototoxic, exposure to UV light will cause the skin to burn.
