The Mysterious Naked Grapefruit

I have taken to not only peeling my grapefruits, but also making a thin slice along the top of each section and peeling away the thin membrane bits and also the fuzzy white bits--and all the nutrients, I hear my mother saying. Nutrients cannot always be the reason for eating something, however, and I have yet to tire of this process, even though it takes me at least 20 minutes to prepare the entire fruit. You can tell from that last sentence that I do not have young children.

I place the glistening grapefruit slices in an attractive bowl (I have a red glass Goodwill find that sets them off well), admire them for a few moments, and then gorge on their tangy, thirst-quenching goodness, mouthful after mouthful after mouthful. It is the consummate grapefruit consumption experience bar none, even Salty Dogs, and they're pretty good.

I don't have any pictures to show you of this part, but last night as I was admiring the beauty of the sections, I held one up to the kitchen light and was completely enthralled by the subtle pink-gold tint of the fruit, and the depth of field visible in the translucence of the juice-filled vesicles.

I'm not sure that any of the photos I took (and I took MANY) reproduce exactly what I had seen in the kitchen, but with the help of Ian and my headlamp, I think I got some interesting shots regardless. Below are some of them. Enjoy!

Grapefruit, more or less normal color. 

Super close-up of the vesicles, which have been described as kind of fluid-filled hairs. 

More vesicles writ large. 

My headlamp has a red light option.

 

I spent quite a bit of time playing with the camera settings after that, and have included three shots from settings play. In this one, my bioluminescent grapefruit heats up. 

WHITE HOT GLOW!

AND . . . burned out. Time to eat!