R1's Tree

There are 5 "suha" (pommelo) trees in our little orchard.

This website (click here) talks extensively about its medicinal value.

This blog (click here) talks about its folklore.

Here are some excerpts from the posts:

Philippine

Legend has it that the town of Lucban in Quezon Province in the Philippines derived its name from lukban or pomelo tree.  The legend tells of three hunters who, while resting under a large shady lukban tree, got fascinated by the beautiful color and lovely rhythmic chirps of kingfishers (birds). The superstitious hunters took the incident as a sign of good fortune and decided to settle in the place and named it “Lucban.

Japanese

The Japanese refer to the pomelo as buntan or zabon after the name of Cantonese captain Sha Buntan, who is said to have introduced the fruit in Japan in the late 1700s while, on the other hand, the fruit is known as yòuzi in Chinese.  A variety referred to as the “honey pomelo” is called pinghe pao which is said to have originated from the Ming Dynasty around 1528.  The story tells of a Mr Xipu who owned an orchard and was fond of cultivating fruit trees but his orchard was destroyed by a flash flood and only a pomelo tree was left standing after the flood. He cultivated this pomelo tree which eventually bore fruits which were “very big with golden skin”.  When the fruits were finally harvested, Mr Xipu opened one and found a shiny, transparent flesh which tasted as sweet as honey and had very few seeds. Thus, this variety was named “honey pomelo” thereafter.

 Chinese

The Chinese consider pomelo as the “fruit of reunion”. It is among the traditional food being served during the mid-autumn festival or mooncake festival because it has a round shape and the sweet fruit is believed to scare off evil.  In ritual baths, the Chinese boil the skins and the leaves of the pomelo to “ritually cleanse a person and repel evil”.  

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Grown from seed, Daddy planted them and named each one for his 5 grandchildren.

Every time he came to visit, he would check up on his trees.

Excited last year that one of them bore some fruits.

I talked about it click here.

Coincidentally, it is R1, the first grandchild and tree to bear fruits.

We harvested the fruits yesterday, afraid of the frost.

Daddy was so excited. 

The fruits are as big as his head!

He wanted to count each and every single one of them.

He counted a total of 107

 not counting some of the earlier harvests 

to check if they were ready for picking

and the one left that was too high to pick..

...and when he was all done, 

of course he had to taste  

I love my home and gardens...

each tree full of meaning.

Each harvest a wonderful memory. 

 Truly looking forward to many more happy memories and

fruitful harvests!

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