Article 122 of sci.agriculture:
Newsgroups: sci.agriculture,rec.gardens,alt.agriculture.fruit
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From: hrick@world.std.com (Richard K Harrison)
Subject: a tribute to Dancy tangerines
Message-ID: <CKBDnF.AEw@world.std.com>
Followup-To: alt.agriculture.fruit
Keywords: tangerine,mandarin
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 00:35:39 GMT
Lines: 35
Xref: bigblue.oit.unc.edu sci.agriculture:122 rec.gardens:25874 alt.agriculture.fruit:103

 
On the night of the winter solstice, I approach the venerable old tree,
living shrine of the sacred genes.  With snippers in hand I begin
harvesting the fruit.  With each little snip, the cool breeze from the 
lake becomes more and more perfumed with thymol and limonene, an olfactory
flashback to holidays past and future.  The tangerines are at their
peak, nearly explosive with aromatics; just handling them is enough to
release a little peel oil, compounding the orgy of promising aromas,
harbingers of gustatory gratification.
 
Gently I carry them into the house.  Holding one up to the light,
I savor the characteristics of this cultivar, the variety that I value
above all others.  The indescribable but unmistakable color, somewhere
between red and orange, more tantalizing than the glint of gold.
I offer obeisance to these noble oblate orboids, and break one open
as an oblation.  The rind is thin and tight but easy to peel, and soon
the interior glory is revealed: the articulated segments, the hollow axis,
the mysterious bits of stringy "rag."  Two segments at once, gotta have
it, I bite down and the juice sprays onto my eagerly waiting tongue and
palate.  Ah, the complex completeness of it all: the ketones and flavones,
the ascorbic and citric acid, the sugars, and the unique overtone of 
tangeretin -- a chemical orchestra playing the finest sensory symphony.
 
Lord, curse the citrus breeders who create varieties that are hard enough 
to roll down conveyor belts and be dropped into boxes, varieties that look
good but taste like sugared cellulose, cultivars that can be waxed and 
sit on a store shelf for three weeks and still look attractive enough to 
trick someone into buying them.  Lord, bless the soul of Colonel Dancy, 
patron saint of the mandarin clan, bless him for the acuity of his eyes and 
taste buds.  Amen.
 
-- Rick Harrison (hrick@world.std.com)
 




