Spring
What’s picked in spring
Spring is the season of the late oranges and, at the same time, the moment the fields prepare next year’s harvest. The same trees carry the fruit still being picked and the blossom that will become next winter’s oranges. It’s the most beautiful time of year in the Ribera and one of the most delicate for the grower.
The end-of-season oranges
Until March, Salustiana, Navel, Navelate and Sanguinelli carry on. Then come the late varieties, which are something quite different from the Christmas orange: Lane Late until May, Powell, Barnfield and Chislett from March to June, and from April Valencia Late, which lasts until July. They’ve spent more months on the tree, they have more juice and an edge of acidity that makes them the best choice if you juice every morning. You’ll find them in oranges.
The last mandarins
Clemenvilla and Ortanique close the mandarin season, which runs until May. From June they don’t return until September.
Orange blossom, and why it matters
Between March and April the orange tree flowers. That white flower is the azahar, the orange blossom. A spring with rain or strong wind during flowering means less fruit the following winter, because a flower that doesn’t set gives no orange. Everything that happens in these two months shows nine months later.
The market garden in spring
The artichoke carries on until May, and Chinese cabbage until June. Roasting pumpkin bows out in April, and May brings the first aubergines, a sign that the summer vegetables are on their way. It’s all in vegetables.
What there isn’t in spring
Persimmons, which said goodbye in December and don’t return until October.
What to do with late oranges
They’re the best of the year for juicing, but they hold up well elsewhere too. In a salad with spring onion and olive oil —the orange salad this area has always made— the acidity of Valencia Late works better than the sweetness of Navelina. And if you have box to spare, home-made marmalade turns out better with late oranges, because they have more pectin and set sooner.
Keeping fruit once the heat starts
From April, the box that lasted two weeks in the kitchen in January starts keeping a good deal less. Take the fruit out of the box, spread it somewhere cool and airy, and move to the fridge whatever you won’t get through in a few days. Damaged pieces out straight away: in the heat, one spoils its neighbours within hours.
When to order
Because we cut to order, there’s no stock that sells out by mid-afternoon: either it’s in season or it isn’t. What does change is the quality within the season itself, so if you’re especially fond of something, order it in its good weeks rather than at the end, when it’s already on its way out.
Between cutting, packing the box and the courier leaving, 24-48 hours go by, in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands. You can put several things in the same delivery: tell us in the order notes how much of each you’d like.