The Birth of the Texas Grapefruit Industry

The average American consumes around 270 pounds of fresh fruit and tree nuts each year. While many nuts are native to North America, most fruits are not. In fact, only three fruits are considered indigenous: the Concord grape, the blueberry and the cranberry. The rest are all imports. Today we will talk about one of our most recent transplants, the grapefruit.

First documented on the island of Barbados in 1750, historians now believe that the grapefruit originated in Jamaica. After all, the subtropical fruit is a cross between a pomelo and an orange, and oranges didn't grow in Barbados at the time. Botanists later named it grapefruit after the way it grew in clusters, like grapes.

The new fruit was brought to Florida in 1823 and was planted sparingly. Orchard owners didn't have much room or much interest in a fruit that few Floridians seemed to like. Not to mention the fact that the state was already awash in oranges. By the middle of the 19th century, the commercial orange industry in Florida was booming. Orange crates were shipped north along the US East Coast by boat and later across the country by train. In this ultra competitive and profitable new industry there was simply no room for another citrus fruit.

Though it has been a spectacular failure in Florida, the grapefruit arrived in Texas at the right time. The Lone Star State has only recently been admitted to the union (1845), and farmers were on lookout for new agriculture crops. Citrus fruits seemed like the perfect fit. South Texas was famous for its subtropical climate and fertile soil, and farmers knew that citrus would grow like wildfire in this region. They were right.

The first Texas grapefruit crop was harvested in 1893. Unfortunately, it was not a hit. Just as they had in Florida, fruit lovers were turned off by its sour taste. This was long before sugar became a household staple. In those days, it was considered a delicacy. And without sugar, people did not much care for the exotic new fruit.

To their credit, farmers did not give up on the grapefruit. They continued planting small crops and selling or giving them away to customers who had acquired a taste for them. Then in 1929 an orchard owner discovered a red grapefruit growing on a pink grapefruit tree. Heretofore, all grapefruit had been either pink or white. But this new variety, a genetic mutation, had red flesh that was much sweeter than its bitter predecessors.

If someone had shouted, “Eureka, eureka!” it would have been apropos, for this was the discovery that built the Texas citrus industry. Within a decade, the new Ruby Red grapefruit had become one of the most popular breakfast foods in America.

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