A calendar of Valencian fruit: what there is each month

The question we get most on WhatsApp isn’t how much a box costs: it’s
«what have you got right now?». And the answer changes every month, because what
there is is exactly what’s being picked.

This is the full calendar of the Ribera del Xúquer, with everything that comes out of our
fields and when. Keep it: it works for the whole year.

The full calendar, month by month

The dates move a week or two each year depending on how the autumn comes in and how much it
rains in spring. What doesn’t move is the order.

Citrus: from November to June

They’re the long season and the one that shapes the year. Eight months in which different
varieties take turns, each with its own moment.

Oranges

They start in the middle of November with the Navelina and finish in June with the Valencia
Late. In between come the Salustiana and the Navel Lane Late. Each has its use: the early ones are
for eating and the late ones for juice. It’s broken down in
when oranges are in season.

Mandarins

They start before the oranges — in October, with the earliest varieties — and finish earlier, in
February. The best moment is from November to January, when the clementines come
in, which are the ones that really do open by themselves.

Lemons

The odd one out: there are lemons all year round. The lemon tree flowers
several times and crops in waves, so there’s always a batch at its peak. The variety changes —
Fino in winter, Verna in summer — but there are always lemons.

Persimmons: the shortest season

From October to December, and not much more. It’s the narrowest window in the
whole calendar: when it’s over, it’s over until the following year.

The Persimon persimmon is the firm one, the one you eat like an apple. It’s picked while still
hard so it survives the journey, and at home it softens over the days. If you prefer it crisp, the
fridge slows it down.

Every October there are people who write to us in March asking about persimmons. There aren’t
any: what’s sold outside those three months comes from a cold store or from a long way off.

The market garden: summer and winter

Vegetables run the opposite way to citrus, and that’s why the two complement each other so well:
they fill exactly the months when there are no oranges.

From June to October

It’s the turn of the Italian frying pepper and the aubergine,
both high-summer market garden crops. They’re what keeps something to pick in July and August,
when the orange trees are loaded with green fruit.

From September to March

In come the squashes — butternut and the sweet roasting pumpkin — and
Chinese cabbage, which lasts all winter. They’re cold-season crops, the sort that
keep well and give you plenty to work with in the kitchen.

You can see what there is right now in the vegetables
section.

Honey: the exception to the calendar

Orange blossom honey runs on two different clocks, and it’s worth not confusing them.

It’s produced once a year, in spring, when the orange trees blossom. It’s a
short flowering — three or four weeks in April — and it’s the only window in which the bees can
make orange blossom honey. If it rains during the blossom that year, the harvest suffers.

But it’s sold all year, because honey doesn’t go off: kept properly, somewhere
dark and dry, it lasts for years without losing anything. It’s the only product in the catalogue
that doesn’t depend on the month you order it.

Why some things come before others

Nobody decides the order of the calendar: it’s set by three factors working together.

The hours of cold

Citrus needs cool nights to change colour and for the acidity to drop. That’s why the season
doesn’t start until the autumn turns properly cold, and why a warm October puts everything back a
fortnight. In the fields it shows first in the early varieties, which are the ones that cope worst
with late heat.

The variety

Within one species, genetics rule. A Navelina and a Valencia Late are both oranges and are
planted in the same district, but six months pass between one ripening and the other. We growers
plant staggered varieties for exactly that reason: to have a long season instead of everything
coming at once in three weeks.

The rain

A wet year gives bigger fruit with more juice, but also more delicate fruit and more risk of it
splitting. A dry year gives smaller, more concentrated fruit. That doesn’t change the month, but it
does change how many days you can wait before picking.

Inside each fruit there are several

The calendar above says «orange» or «mandarin», but inside each box different varieties take
turns. That’s what lets a season last eight months instead of three weeks.

The oranges, in order of appearance

First the Navelina, from November to January, an eating orange and the one you
see at Christmas. Then the Salustiana, from December to March, the winter juicing
orange. After that the Navel Lane Late, from January to April, which holds very
well on the tree. And to finish, the Valencia Late, from March to June, the
juiciest of them all.

The mandarins

They start with the satsumas in September and October, the earliest ones, which
peel themselves. Then come the clementines from November to January, the most
flavoursome. And the late hybrids close things off until March, sweeter but with
the odd seed.

The lemons

Two varieties share the year: the Fino from autumn to spring, thin-skinned and
full of juice, and the Verna from spring to autumn, larger and thicker-skinned.
Between them they cover all twelve months.

What to order in each season

If you’re about to place an order and don’t know what to take, this is the short version of the
calendar.

And if what you want is to get it right without thinking: order whatever appears in
the shop that month. Only what’s being picked is there.

Why the catalogue changes on its own

If you’ve been into the shop in August and in December, you’ll have seen
two different catalogues. It isn’t a fault: it’s the calendar on this page applied to the
website.

The alternative would be always having the same twelve things for sale, and for that you have to
buy fruit from other people or take it out of a cold store. We’d rather the shop showed what’s in
the fields, even if that means four months a year without oranges. It’s set out in full in
From tree to table.

And if you’re looking for something that isn’t there, write to us and
we’ll tell you roughly when it starts.