Several years ago, a dear friend of ours, bought a house that had a citrus tree growing in the yard. She wasn't sure what it was. The fruit started green and then changed to a mottled orange. She thought "wow, my house came with an orange tree!"
Then she ate one.
We remember her going "God, they were horrible, I'm not sure what was wrong with them". 2nd Man saw them, tasted them and said "these are Naranja Agria", or sour/bitter oranges. His Grandmother used them and they are very popular in Hispanic cooking. This was more than 10 years ago, before we had the farm and sadly, she passed away. Her house was sold and the tree cut down when the house was a remodeled.
Flash forward to recently when we were were watching a cooking show and they were using them to marinate some meats. 2nd Man said "that's the tree "L" had, we should grow one of them at the farm!" After a bit of research, I found out that they are also used for making marmalade and we LOVE orange marmalade. Sign us up! Then, I just had to find one!
That was easier said than done. I reached out to close to a dozen local nurseries in the Houston area to ask, but none had them. They said it was more of a specialty citrus that they didn't stock in lieu of all the regular citrus the usually carry, plus I'm sure some people might grow one and not realize what it is, ha.
It took some research but I finally found one online, sold here in Texas and it even had free shipping! I ordered it. They only had two left for the season so I was able to get one of them. It came in a tall thin box, but was carefully wrapped. Here it is after I unwrapped it and the leaves started to pop out. It is a great specimen, about three feet tall and it even has...
...blooms all over it (and side note, it smells AMAZING!). I babied it in the apartment for a week until we could get it out to the farm.
We stopped at the store on the way out and bought a bag of soil specially formulated for citrus. I also cleaned up a large clay pot we had.
Got it planted and watered in and it's happily resting on the porch now. We will leave it in the pot until we are our there, so that we can move it around as needed for either sun or to protect in a freeze or even another drought if we have one of those again this Summer.
Now what is it used for? They are used in all sorts of dishes, never fresh of course because they are so bitter. But the rind and juice are most commonly used in all sorts of things:
Bonne Mamam makes a (hard to find) "bitter orange fine shred marmalade". We'd love to make that someday, it would be wonderful.
It's used in cooking as a marinade for beef, pork and chicken and even seafood and ceviche. For this, they sell it bottled and ready to go for that!
And this is a glass of a sour orange margarita. Sign us up for this too, ha!
Heck, with blooms already on ours, we might end up with a few this season, they will produce while in a container. Even if we only got three or four, that would be wonderful to give us a taste of what's to come!
Nice that you where able to find a sour orange. Looks like it was really shipped well.
ReplyDeleteSomething different to plant in your orchard, but just don't plant it under the electric high-line. :}
Rather cold and windy here. Don't think we will get out of the 40's today; maybe low 50's and that's about it. Wore shorts yesterday and sweat pants today.
Have a wonderful day and enjoy your evening.
It was shipped very well, we were happy. It will stay in the clay pot for at least this first season so we can protect in NEXT Winter but then we'll find a good spot of it. Yep, cold here too, they say it's the last gasp of "kind of Winter". We're going to a wedding tomorrow afternoon/evening reception that will be on the water. Brrr....
DeleteI immediately thought of marmalade when I saw the headline. Have you tried lime marmalade? It is also really good.
ReplyDeleteOooh, we LOVE limes I bet lime marmalade would be amazing. Will have to look for that, thanks!!
DeleteI love this. Planting something to make something specific, I have a few crops like that!
ReplyDeleteRight? We decided to do that, it's worth a try. There are a few other things we are planning that will be for just one or two things. Plus it's fun to grow something different too, ha.
Deletethis is what you make cuban lechon asado with. lucky you! i can't get those oranges here.
ReplyDeleteOff to Google that recipe!! Sounds wonderful and yep, they are hard to find here too, though the Hispanic grocery stores occasionally have them. We'd love to have a bunch of them growing, heck, maybe we can sell some at a farmer's market, ha. And if we have a surplus sometime, just ask and we'll see if we can box up some! :-). Of course that might be a couple three years down the road, ha.
DeleteTwo things:
ReplyDelete1) orangerie
2) Did you harden if off?
Practical Parsimony
harden it off, not if
DeleteWe knew there would be an orangerie in the mix! Love it!!! yes, they said it came hardened off but they also suggested time outside, time inside and we had it about a week and did that a few times. It's also on the porch most of the time so it will be shady and cool and then we'll put it out in the sun on the weekends.
DeleteI am hoping if 'orangerie' is often in your consciousness, you will believe it is your idea and build one, all said in love and fun.
DeleteWe picked up an orange that had fallen from a tree in a park in Spain in September. When we tasted it we said "Ew". Maybe it was one of these. Look forward to a future post on how you used it.
ReplyDeleteSeville Oranges! That is where they supposedly originated and are growing wild all over the country. I bet that's what you had. Yep, we're hoping these few blooms will give us at least a handful of them to play with. Now if we could get those sweet lemons, ha.
DeleteOranges usually stay green until a cold spell goes through and then the start turning orange. Usually, they are ripe before they even turn orange.
ReplyDeleteThat's true. I think that's why some people get confused by these, they are sour like a lime (or maybe more like a lemon) but get orange and look like they should be sweet, ha. Our friend thought they were limes that stayed on the tree too long, ha.
DeleteWe had some of the best fajitas ever once and I asked their secret and they said it was sour orange. Thanks for this info, hope it works out for you.
ReplyDeleteYep, lots of marinade recipes for latin cuisine use these oranges. Hoping to recreate some of those one of these days!
DeleteI don’t think I’ve ever heard of these. I wonder if you could use them in recipes like you would lemons.
ReplyDelete