WHAT IS YUZU? The yuzu block
The complex DNA of citrus means scientists worldwide are still arguing about the origins of yuzu (Citrus junos). When you start reading the research, it quickly descends into a dizzying family tree.
Scientists currently believe yuzu is a hybrid of a mandarin and the rare ichang papeda (Citrus cavaleriei). The ichang papeda is a cold-tolerant, slow-growing wild citrus with lemon-scented leaves and lumpy-looking, lime-like fruit (and considered to be the most likely ‘parent’ of different lime varieties). It was discovered by US Botanist Frank Meyer, who also found the lemon variety that now bears his name (Meyer).
A ripe yellow yuzu is about the size of a lemon, but with a flatter top and bottom, more like a mandarin or very small grapefruit. The lumpy skin is very soft and looks similar to a tangelo.
It’s enormously popular in Japan, and with chefs, food producers, and brewers worldwide. Unripe, green yuzu peel is cold cured into a mustard called yuzu koshu, mixed with chillies and salt. The soft, floral zest of ripe yuzu is grated or shredded, and sprinkled on noodles, salad, soup, drinks, and meat, or mixed into mayonnaise or aioli. Junko loves to put a little on top of fish dishes.
The ripe fruit is used to create yuzu cha, a flavouring added to drinks, desserts, and baking.
“They taste horrible (fresh) – oh my god, so sour – so you’ve got to process them to get the benefits,” says Neville. “It’s really hard to describe (the flavour), sort of a combination of grapefruit, orange, lemon, and mandarin.”
Unlike other citrus, there’s very little flesh or juice inside, mostly membrane and seeds. Some fruit have no juice at all.
Neville says he can see why people are puzzled by yuzu.
“If you cut one open, you’d think ‘what is this all about?’ The tree grows vigorous spiky thorns. It’s not a very pretty tree. But the flavours are intriguing, and it really opens up the imagination; I think that’s why it’s so popular with chefs because they can be so creative with it.”
Neither Neville or Junko had ever lived rurally before buying their first block.
“If you want to buy something good horticulturally
(in the wider Wellington region), you’re looking at 15ha blocks, way out of our league. Finally, we found this small hectare of land, subdivided off a kiwifruit orchard. I dug a few holes, as you do. The spade went straight down, and it was a beautiful, deep, dark loam."
They contracted a citrus nursery to do the specialist propagation required to get new trees from their mother stock. A year and a half later, they planted their first yuzu. Two weeks later, the trees were gone.
“They were all eaten,” says Neville. He still sounds outraged. “Rabbits, hundreds of bloody rabbits came in and thought ‘this is something new!’ We’re in an area where it’s all market gardens, and they must have gotten tired of lettuce and cabbage. The trees were eaten to the ground, it was unbelievable. That was the first time we thought, ‘we can’t do this, we’re townies.’”
They persevered. The next lot of yuzu were planted and protected. Again, the rabbits prevailed. Today, they encircle young trees with 1m-high, bunny-beating netting.
It took a couple of goes to stymie the rabbits, but Neville says the challenges kept coming.
“You’d leave it for a week or two, and the weeds and grass would be taller than the plants. How can grass grow that fast, from zero to 1m in two weeks?”