Abstract
‘Corsican’ is an acidless citron derived from ‘Poncire Commun’ and has long been the cultivar almost exclusively grown on Corsica. Citron arrived there by the eighteenth century and was commercially important from the 1820s to the 1920s. Its cultivation boomed in the second half of the nineteenth century, when Corsican citron was renowned for its high quality, sometimes brought high prices, and was perceived as a path to quick riches. Cultivation started on Cap Corse and shifted to the Eastern Plain. Most of the crop was brined, candied, and sold to northern Europe, Great Britain, and the United States for use in baking cakes. Livorno was the center of the citron candying industry. The greatest obstacles for Corsican producers were mainland France’s disadvantageous sugar tariff policy for Corsica and growing international competition, which resulted in the commercial industry’s decline by the 1930s. Currently Corsican growers raise citron on c. 15 ha and harvest 60–100 mt annually.
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Notes
- 1.
In this chapter, ‘Corsican’ refers exclusively to the ‘Corsican’ citron cultivar, which can be grown in many areas around the world. “Corsican citron,” without the single quotation marks around the cultivar name, refers to any citron grown on Corsica. In practice most citrons grown on Corsica are ‘Corsican’, but the distinction between the two terms remains important.
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Curk, F., Karp, D., Campocasso, PJ., Luro, F. (2023). The Citron in Corsica. In: Goldschmidt, E.E., Bar-Joseph, M. (eds) The Citron Compendium. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25775-9_10
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