World's Largest Lemon
Lemon Grove, California
A large civic lemon statue stands in the center of Lemon Grove, a suburb of San Diego. The lemon is visible next to the Orange Line Trolley tracks -- a concrete fruit perhaps 10 feet wide and 6 feet in diameter. Looking at it in the bright sun makes the inside of your mouth pucker.
The statue's concrete base reads: "BEST CLIMATE ON EARTH." A homeless person has apparently taken this to heart -- his blanket lies at the foot of the statue. A dozen lemon trees are attempting to grow behind the big lemon statue, to remind all that before this was a town, it was a lemon grove.
The Orange Line Trolley slides by at regular intervals, stopping at a replica historical train station. Of course it would have to be a replica, because this used to be a lemon grove....
The town of Corona, north of Lemon Grove and closer to Los Angeles, once laid claim to the title "Lemon Capital of the World." A museum there presents the lemon's role in the local economy. But nearby Chula Vista also claimed at some point to be "Lemon Capital of the World," and still holds an annual festival.
Lemon Grove makes no such assertion about being a capital, or even owning the World's Largest Lemon. We don't know if it's really the largest, but we're almost certain it's the Largest Fruit Adjacent to Public Transportation.
