The word ‘lemonade’ conjures up memories of sweltering summer afternoons, refreshing beverages and fizzy sugar highs, but now a fruit of the same name is enjoying a small but devoted following at a Gayndah orchard.
The lemonade fruit – an unassuming hybrid species of lemon and mandarin – grows on the orchard of Big Orange co-owner Neil Richards alongside popular members of the citrus family such as Murcotts and Imperials.
Mr Richards, who maintains a small contingent of lemonade trees on his property, said the fruit had limited popularity among locals and travelers due to its looks.
“They’re a bit like a lime – to me, they’re best eaten green,” he said.
“When they go yellow, they dry out a little bit. But people don’t seem to want something that’s green – they think it’s not ripe yet.”
Mr Richards and his wife Tania, who run Big Orange together, turn ripe lemonade fruits into a refreshing marmalade by blending it with lime.
The spread is less sweet than those made from mandarins or oranges.
“They’re not sweet and they’re not sour – they have a very refreshing, neutral flavour,” Mr Richards said.
An at-home taste test confirmed the orchard owner’s assessment – lemonade fruits house a wealth of juicy and refreshing segments which pack a miniscule hit of tartness in their juice to balance out the fruit’s flavour profile.
But potential scrumpers beware – the lemonade tree comes equipped with plenty of long, sharp thorns, a defense mechanism it inherited from its parent species, the lemon.
“They’re a hard fruit to market, because the plant has those huge thorns that mark and scratch the fruit,” Mr Richards said.
Lemonade trees are a stand-out in Big Orange’s citrus fruit line-up, as the hybrid species flowers and produces fruit several times a year instead of just once.
The fruit was reportedly discovered in the 1980s in New Zealand before finding an audience across the Tasman.
Now, Gayndah orchards ship the fruit to citrus-lovers across the country.
“All you have to do is try them,” Mr Richards said.
“Once you do, you’ll love them.”
