I like grapefruit. For whatever reason I hadn’t bought them for several years. No, it’s not that I’m the only person in the house who is really fond of citrus fruit. I buy cases of clementines and gorge on them without a qualm every winter. I just… well, haven’t bought them.
I was searching the produce aisle recently and noticed that there were Ruby Reds on sale, so I picked some up and have been having them with my lunch. (You don’t have to have them only with breakfast, right?)
Grapefruit are kind of a nostalgia food for me. Every winter, my parents would buy a case of citrus fruit from a neighbor and we’d all enjoy them for a month or so. Typically it would be the grapefruit with breakfast thing, and I always liked it. It wasn’t only that I liked the taste, but that it was something you made a small game of eating. While of course we were not permitted to play with our food, there was something fun in spooning out the grapefruit sections. But even more fun to me was after all the pulp had been eaten.
You see, Mom would let us squeeze whatever was left into our finished juice glasses. I always got a kick out of it – fresh-squeezed juice and all. I can remember squeezing the shell with my little hands, trying with determination to get a few ounces of juice out and feeling really satisfied if I reall could get a couple of swallows.
Today as I was finishing up my lunch, I found myself doing the same thing. My hands are stronger now, I managed to squeeze out a lot more than I could as a kid. And darned if it isn’t still kind of a satisfying little thing to do. Certainly grapefruit juice I buy in the store can never taste so good!