A funny-looking fruit has been attracting plenty of attention at Bay Area Judaica stores this week.
With the eight-day festival of Sukkot starting this evening, local retailers were anxiously awaiting this year’s shipments of etrogim, hopeful that the big, bumpy citrus fruit central to the holiday would be healthy and in adequate supplies.
“It’s a very nail-biting time in the store,” said Ellen Bob, co-owner of bob and bob in Palo Alto. “You want to have enough for everyone who wants one but not have any left over.”
Bob hopes that she accurately measured demand when she ordered 250 sets of the four species that are shaken in six directions and blessed during the holiday observances. Myrtle, willow and lulav, or palm fronds, make up the other three species, but it is the etrog or citron that is the most expensive and trouble-prone commodity.
Retailers worry about growing schedules, blemishes and keeping the pitom, or stem, intact.
The etrogim sold at bob and bob and Afikomen, a Judaica store in Berkeley, were grown in Israel. The Central Israel Etrog Co. controls 70 percent of Israel’s citron market and exports about 100,000 etrogim to the United States each Sukkot.
Four generations of Yossi Ludmir’s family have tended etrog groves since arriving in the Middle East in 1820. The family now owns 74 acres of etrog orchards and packs the fruit at a warehouse in Bnei Brak, a fervently religious city outside Tel Aviv.
Most of Israel’s citrus orchards are located in a 28-mile stretch of coastal land from Hadera to Gadera. The palm fronds for the lulav come from near Sinai, in what is now Egypt. Myrtle is grown on farms in northern Israel. Willow branches can come from many places, even someone’s backyard.
Part of the mitzvah of buying an etrog is finding the perfect citron, oval in shape, with the pitom intact, and with a skin bearing no blemishes.
“It’s a mitzvah to have the best etrog,” Ludmir said.
An etrog can be priced from $12 to $100, depending on its size and quality.
This year, the growers are expecting a possible shortage. The growing season was shortened because the weather stayed cold in Israel until early June and the High Holy Days fell early this year.
Afikomen manager John Hessler said that based on the etrogim he’s received so far, “it’s not exactly the best crop. They’re a little sad-looking this year.”
Not so, says California grower John Kirkpatrick, of the etrog crop that he just finished harvesting at his orchard near the San Joaquin Valley town of Exeter.
Kirkpatrick says his two acres of citron trees are grown under rabbinical supervision and the fruit were just shipped off to wholesalers in New Jersey.
“Coming up with really good citron is like mining gold,” says Kirkpatrick, who planted his 300 trees some 22 years ago. “A good part of our crop never makes it into retail hands.”
Admitting that his primary marketing competition comes from Israel and from American customers who want to purchase their etrog from orchards there, Kirkpatrick said, “Our fruit, for whatever reason, really finishes out nicer than the Israeli fruit. It’s gained some respect.”
This year, for the first time, etrogim from Kirkpatrick’s orchard are being sold for Sukkot at Berkeley’s Monterey Market. “It’s kind of a community service thing,” said owner Bill Fujimoto, who normally carries citrons after the holiday for culinary use.
An etrog at Monterey Market is selling for $15, but Fujimoto said the price would drop to “a couple of dollars a pound” after Sukkot. Citrons are highly prized for use in candied citrus peel and marmalade.
Sets of the species cost $45 at Afikomen. At bob and bob, prices range from $40 to $60, depending on the quality of the etrog.
Most of the etrogim are sold to customers who reserved theirs weeks ago.
Hessler started taking the first of 146 orders for etrogim in mid-July. He ordered 175 sets, figuring that he would sell extras to people invariably wanting them at the last minute.
“Every year, we always say we could have sold more,” he said, noting that the downside to over-ordering is that “it’s a lot of money and it’s a perishable item. You don’t want to order more and get stuck with them.”
Both Hessler and Bob say customers have definite preferences when it comes to the size and shape of the etrog they buy.
“The less it looks like a lemon, the better it is,” says Bob. A good-looking etrog is long, skinny and has well-defined ridges.
Shoppers like to carefully select an etrog for its shape and feel. “It’s a very sensual holiday,” says Bob.
According to Hessler, “Everyone has their own thing about etrog.” Many Chassidic Jews prefer them in an hourglass shape. Some customers like them to fit comfortably into the palm of their hands.
Afikomen only displays a few etrogim at a time, mindful that “if you break the pitom, it’s useless to us.”
The store’s staff normally uses any damaged citrons for cooking, but this year an employee has other plans for the leftovers: They’ll go into a Mason jar filled with vodka. “For Purim, we’ll have infused vodka,” said Hessler.