A Fukuokan's Notes from Sapporo

After citrus fruits for juice, such as Yuzu and Kabosu, have almost disappered, now we have a plenty of ‘eating’ citrus.

The variety of this kind of citrus fruits seems to be forever increasing, despite the fact that the total national consumption of oranges has been declining (I heard this is because people don’t want to bother peeling the fruits, how busy are you!?).  Apart from the Satsuma, there are Decopon, Amanatsu, Pearl kan, Pon kan…anytime I go to greengrocer’s, I will find a new variety or two that I haven’t seen before. Is cross-fertilizing citrus trees so tempting to farmers?

Among countless varieties of citrus fruits I particularly like Chinese Honey Orange, aka. Ponkan in this country.

Easy to peel like the Satsuma, but the Ponkan tastes more intensive. I like the shape of the fruit, too. It usually has a knot on the top, though the pictured fruit doesn’t obviously have the character (probably because I bought the cheapest on the market- appearance is everything in this country, you see).

The climate of this area may be suitable to grow citrus trees. Not only in fruits farms, but even in someone's garden can you see citrus trees bowed with fruits like this.