I made grapefruit marmalade last week, and the house still smells of it. “Smell” isn’t really the right word, though; it’s more a rich citrus fragrance that permeates curtains and rugs and makes visitors exclaim, “Oh, how lovely! What is it?” Forget about air fresheners: just make grapefruit marmalade.

I have a confession, though: I don’t like marmalade. Not on toast, anyhow, the traditional venue, though I do love a few tablespoons stirred into a muffin mix or added to the rich fruitcake I make: no eggs, no butter, no extra sugar, just fruit, olive oil and marmalade to give it all the moisture it needs.

When I was a kid there were grapefruit trees in every street. Parents swapped them over back fences for chokos or paw paws or plums or a dozen eggs. You ate them cut in half then scooped into segments, sprinkled with white or brown sugar. Few people these days have time to eat half a grapefruit for breakfast, much less for to segment it with a sharp knife. But they are equally good as an entrée or dessert and even better if you pop them under the grill for five minutes till the sugar caramelises and the juice just begins to bubble. To be truly decadent, add a few drops or gin or rum and you have a totally stunning dish.

Grapefruit is one of the blessed fruits: very low GI, low calories and good for you in dozens of ways I’m not qualified to go into here, but you can soon discover if you want to know what small miracles eating a grapefruit will do for you. A word of warning though: large amounts — emphasis on “large” here — can conflict with some medications, so don’t think “one grapefruit is good, 20 will be even better”. As with most foods, from parsley to garlic, a little is fantastic, a binge can cause problems.

Grapefruit grow happily from tropical areas to temperate climates. They even grow in cold climates, though not as vigorously. We live in a climate with cold winters — down to -9 — but our grapefruit survive in sheltered corners of the garden — the sort of shelter provided by large rock, sunny walls, courtyards or among other established trees. Try paving around the tree to retain and reflect heat. If all else fails, grow your grapefruit in a tub on wheels and take it indoors on cold winter nights.

Admittedly, our grapefruit trees don’t grow very large — after 20 years mine are still about the same height as me, though thankfully a bit wider. Last weekend I picked two boxes of fruit from just one small tree. Grapefruit, even those dwarfed by the cold, are very heavy bearers if they are well-fed and looked after.

The one climate that is a real problem for grapefruit growers is arid areas. Like all citrus, grapefruit are shallow-rooted and, while they adore heat, they don’t like dry roots. Mulch them very very well, but keep the mulch away from the trunk, especially in wet or humid areas, or you might cause a rot around the trunk, especially if an over-enthusiastic gardener has been “weeding” around the tree with a whipper snipper.

In very hot, dry areas, you might try a pomelo instead — it’s a bit like an overgrown, segmented grapefruit, with very puffy skin and pith, but still great to eat. And if you only have a patio, just use a very big pot. Grapefruit fruits so prolifically that you’ll still get a decent crop after two or three years, as long as you feed it lavishly.