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Balady citron

Balady citron (etrog)
Braverman1.JPG
Braverman sub-variety of Balady citron
Species C. medica L. var. Balady

The balady citron is a variety of citron, or etrog, grown in Israel, mostly for Jewish ritual purposes. Not native to the region, it was imported around 500 or 300 BCE by either Jewish or Greek settlers. Initially not widely grown, it was promoted and popularized in the 1870s by Rabbi Chaim Elozor Wax.

(Arabic: بلدي‎‎) is Arabic for "native." Local Arab farmers began using this name in the mid-19th century to distinguish this variety from the Greek citron, which was cultivated along the Jaffa seashore.

The balady citron is an acidic variety, alongside the Florentine and Diamante citron from Italy, and the Greek citron.

Citrus fruits are not native to Israel. According to Gallesio, Jews from Babylonia introduced the citron into Palestine in around 500 BCE, while Tolkowsky believed that Greek settlers brought it from India around 200 years later during the 3rd century BCE. It is thought that the citron is the oldest cultivated fruit in the country. Being of ritual significance for Jews, the citron was exported abroad in small quantities during Roman times. During the 1800s, the Balady was grown on the outskirts of Nablus, Nazareth, Tiberias, Safed and Alma al-Shaib, in Umm al-Fahm and in Lifta village near Jerusalem. It was only in the middle of the 19th-century that Balady citrons began to feature significantly in the European market and a religious Jewish controversy subsequently erupted as to whether the citrons had been grafted and therefore deemed disqualified for ritual use.


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