Lambing Day 11 - Thursday

Thursday was another day spent, in the main recovering from my lurgy of the day before.  Now, I also realise I forgot to tell you about the pomelo.  But before I do, I must tell you that Sir arrived on Wednesday night, from a “work” trip in some nice hot Sultanate.  The sheep had been warned that Sir was due and would not be pleased to see no lambs in the labour wards.  They, of course, ignored this, and carried on chewing nonchalantly, but they did appear quite alarmed he entered the pre-natal barn and brushed his beard thoughtfully.  This meant that, when I did the three am check, one was immediately quite suspicious and had, although not a dominant ewe, had reserved rather a large part of the lower pen to herself, making me wait for quite a while, so I returned to bed stimulated by the cold air and not at all able to get back to sleep.

Anyway, let me tell you about the pomelo.  I have often seen these for sale at my local greengrocer but never got around to buying one.  They are yellow fruits about the size of a honeydew melon, with a yellow skin similar to that of a grapefruit, but smoother in texture.  The skin clothes a pith with the texture of soft white bread, but with little aroma.  This is about a centimetre thick and you are left with what looks like a very large and pithy grapefruit in huge segments.  One can peel these segments apart, just as one does an orange, and peel all the pith, and even the skin away, leaving the fruity flesh which is firm and pleasingly unsticky.  Each of these wedges is about the size of one’s hand, and even the cells of fruit are the pumpkin seeds.  The colour is the pale green of the grapefruit, but the taste is rather like that of the grapefruit and the pomegranate, with a touch of honey.  It really is delicious – juicy without messy, refreshing without sharp, and fruity without sweetness.  Three wedges were all I could manage.  Four of us enjoyed this new fruit, and there were two more helpings left.  Iced on a hot day it would be very refreshing and it was not at all sticky like other citrus fruit, or pineapple can be,  meaning it could be enjoyed on a train with impunity (peel and take the segments with you).  The segments could always be crumbled into a fruit salad too, having much the same effect as pomegranate seeds.  I will certainly have one of these again.

This is The Banbury Man reporting on behalf of the Pomelo Marketing Trust.