Mandarins

Mandarins from the Ribera, sweet and easy to peelMandarins picked to order in Albalat de la Ribera. It’s the first fruit to come back after the summer and the one that announces the citrus season: when it appears in the shop, in September, it means the fields are up and running again.Clemenvilla, the variety we growThe variety we grow ourselves is Clemenvilla, which comes in during January and lasts until May, closing the season. It’s a medium-to-large mandarin, deep in colour and clearly sweet, that peels without a fight and separates into clean segments. It has a reputation for being one of the best to carry in a coat pocket or slip into a school bag.When we have themThe season runs from September to May, with varieties handing over to one another: Okitsu opens in September, Oronules and Marisol arrive in October, Clemenules runs from November to January, Hernandina fills January and February, and Clemenvilla and Ortanique close from January to May. For a few weeks in autumn it overlaps with the first Navelina oranges: that’s the best moment to order the mixed box, because both are cut on the same day. From June the mandarins are over and don’t return until the following autumn.What to expect from the boxMandarins come in a 15 kg box, the same format as the rest of the fruit: it’s a good number of pieces, but they disappear on their own. Like all our fruit, they carry no wax and no treatment after cutting, so the peel doesn’t shine and may have the odd mark. Sizes vary within the same box.Some pieces may come with a leaf, and in the first weeks of the season the colour isn’t always even: the skin finishes taking on its tone with the cold nights, not with the sugar.How to keep themSomewhere cool, dry and airy, not piled up. Mandarins are more delicate than oranges because the skin is thin and separates from the flesh: squeeze them and they split. The best thing is to take them out of the box and spread them out, checking every two or three days. In a house with the heating on high, the bottom of the fridge helps a lot.Also in the mixed boxIf you’d like to try mandarins and oranges at once without choosing, the 15 kg mixed box brings both in the same delivery. It’s the format most first-time customers start with.Formats and deliveryAll our fruit comes in 15 kg boxes. Everything is picked the day we prepare your order and leaves our warehouse in Albalat de la Ribera straight for your door, with no warehouses or distribution centres in between. Delivery takes 24-48 hours in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands; for now we don’t reach the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla.If you want several things in one delivery, order them together and tell us in the order notes how much of each you’d like. And if anything arrives in poor condition, write to us and we’ll sort it out: we work with fresh produce and the journey sometimes takes its toll.