Fruit of the zesty kind

Another Citrus Festival was organised by the President of Malta last Sunday to raise funds for charity an event which also helps to highlight the importance of orange production in the Maltese islands.

Orange trees are not indigenous and do not grow wild in the Maltese countryside but in the past the orange was an important crop and many large groves could be found in the central parts of Malta and parts of Gozo.

Oranges have been cultivated in the Maltese islands for a very long time. Many varieties of oranges can nowadays be found in the Maltese islands but the best known is a local variety which produces ‘Maltese oranges’.

In the 19th century saplings of Maltese orange trees were exported in large numbers and nowadays Maltese oranges can be found growing in several Mediterranean countries as well as in other parts of the world including the United States of America where they are known by other names.

The orange tree, like other citrus fruit trees, is native to Southeast Asia and was probably planted around the Mediterranean by the Arabs during the ninth and tenth centuries. Christopher Columbus is said to have taken orange seeds with him to the New World and now Florida has become one of the main orange producers in the world.

Several other citrus fruits including a large number of varieties are cultivated in the Maltese islands but except for lemon trees they do not grow wild. The lemon is a hybrid tree that originated in Asia. It probably entered Europe through southern Italy sometime during the First Century AD.

It is widely cultivated in the Maltese islands and sometimes one finds solitary trees growing in the countryside.

These trees were probably planted by farmers but managed to survive without further help after the fields in which it was planted were abandoned.

The lemon has a variety of culinary and non-culinary uses. It is widely used in traditional medicine and whole books have been written about it. Lemon is a strong antiseptic and antibacterial and is a rich source of vitamin C and antioxidants.

This article was published in The Times on 25.01.12

Of seeds with ‘papery wings’

The sandarac is Malta’s national tree. It was presumably chosen because of its rarity in the Maltese islands. 

Its main range is in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Outside North West Africa it is found only in Malta and Cartagena in southeast Spain.

It is a conifer and like all conifers the seeds are produced in cones. 

In this species the cones are between ten and fifteen millimetres long. When young they are green, turning brown as they age. 

They consist of four thick scales arranged in pairs to form an uneven sphere. When the cones open, the seeds which have papery wings float gently to the ground.

In Maltese the sandarac is known as għargħar, a semitic name that indicates that this tree was already present when the when the islands were occupied by the Arabs. 

Up to about thirty years ago it was thought that this tree grew only at Maqluba, near Qrendi, but a small grove was found near Mellieħa. 

In the past this tree was said to have been much more common especially in the area around Birkirkara and around the village of Għargħur.

It is a tree adapted to the hot dry summers of the Mediterranean. It can survive burning and can re-grow from cut or burnt stumps. Trees that have been burnt repeatedly over a long period of time form burrs known as lupias. 

Burrs are stress-induced deformations usually in the form of rounded outgrowths of the trunk. Burrs are usually highly prized and sought by furniture makers and artists. To obtain the lupias the sandarac trees are destroyed and this has led to large parts of Morocco being deforested.

The tree produces a resin which is used to make a varnish which was used to protect paintings and antiques. For many centuries sandarac was the only varnish in use until it was replaced by cheaper varnishes. 

In parts of North Africa the resin is traditionally used to make a liquor and as a remedy in cases of difficult childbirth as well as to reduce cramps. Sandarac is burned to treat colds or taken internally to treat roundworms and tapeworms.

The wood of the sandarac is known as citron. In Romans times it was often used in house building and is still used in cabinetry and to make decorative objects. 

This article was published in The Times on 21.12.11.

The fig tree

Country people used to say that the cicada appears when the fruit of the fig starts to ripen while others even claimed that the cicada actually ripens them. The adult cicada lives for a few summer weeks while the fig survives for many years and can grow into a large spreading tree that can produce large quantities of good tasting fruit every year.
The fig tree is an indigenous tree native to Southwest Asia and the Mediterranean. It has been cultivated in the Maltese islands for centuries and often grows wild in the most improbable of places. The large lobed leaves are easily recognised as they have been used for by artists to cover the genitals of nude figures. In the Book of Genesis Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves after eating the forbidden fruit.
The fig tree, known in Maltese as siġra tat-tin was one of the first plants to be cultivated. Remains which were found in a Neolithic village in Jordan were dated to 9,400 to 9,200 BC. It was domesticated before wheat, barley and rye. Its fruit known in Maltese as tin is eaten raw, cooked, or dried. Once harvested the fruit does not keep well and should be eaten with the least possible delay unless it is to be preserved. Cato a Roman statesman urged the Romans to destroy Carthage and showed the Senate a handful of fresh figs from Carthage to show its proximity to Rome and hence the threat.
In the millennia that this species has been cultivated many varieties and cultivars have been developed. These vary in many ways including in the colour of the skin can be green purple or brown. When a branch, leave or fruit is broken off the tree releases a white sap which is an irritant to human skin. In the past the sap was sometimes used to reduce the pain and swelling of a bee or wasp sting.
Figs are one of the highest plant sources of calcium and fibre. Dried figs are rich in fibre, copper, manganese, magnesium, potassium, calcium, and vitamin K and have smaller amounts of many other nutrients. Figs are used as a laxative and contain many antioxidants. (This article was published in The Times 12.08.2010)