DUANE
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Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one riding shotgun on the story. Somewhere in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, down where the soil runs saline and alkaline and doesn't apologize for either, something remarkable took root. And I do mean that literally.
The grapefruit that would change breakfast tables across the country came out of ground that most folks would look at and say, well, that can't grow much of anything worth eating. The Valley had other ideas. This is a fruit the marker calls unique and colorful, a product of that very soil, bred of Thompson Pink Wood budded on Sour Orange rootstock.
Doesn't that sound like the kind of pairing that shouldn't work, and then absolutely does. Now, here's where the story gets good, because good stories always have two men who don't quite know what they've stumbled onto. The year is 1929.
Two nurserymen, working their separate orchards, each discover something strange and wonderful. Red fruit. A.
E. Henninger over in Mission and Dr. J.
R. Webb down in Donna. Two men, two orchards, same surprise.
What do you do when two people find the same thing at the same time? Well, you do what Texans have always done when the situation calls for fairness and a little drama. You cast lots.
And Henninger won. Won the right to seek a patent, that is. He named his variety Ruby Red, and was issued U.S.
Plant Patent Number 53. Number fifty-three. Out of everything ever patented in the United States up to that moment, this grapefruit was number fifty-three.
Dr. Webb, for his part, didn't walk away empty-handed. His new strain, Red Blush, went on to become equally popular.
Two men, two names, both varieties now counted among the sweet, early, delectable fruits of the Valley, with their rose-colored meat and their red-tinged rinds. The Rio Grande Valley gave them the soil. The nurserymen gave them the names.
And a coin toss, or whatever casting of lots looked like that day, gave one man a patent and gave the rest of us a reason to look forward to breakfast.
What the marker says
Unique and colorful product of saline-alkaline soil of Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Bred of Thompson Pink Wood budded on Sour Orange rootstock. Two nurserymen, A. E. Henninger of Mission and Dr. J. R. Webb of Donna, discovered red fruit in their orchards in 1929. They cast lots and Henninger won right to get a patent. He named his variety "Ruby Red," and was issued U.S. Plant Patent No. 53. Dr. Webb's new strain, "Red Blush," is equally popular. Both varieties, with rose-colored meat and red-tinged rinds, are sweet, early, delectable fruits. (1966)