Not much grows in the win­ter besides pota­toes and cit­rus fruits. From the won­der­ful king­dom of juicy, tart, and sweet cit­rus, Blood Oranges rule them all. This week, David John talks about these rich-​colored flesh fruits.

Tart and tangy, with an under­ly­ing sweet­ness, win­ter grape­fruit offer bright­ness to the cold days of Jan­u­ary.

This juicy piece of cit­rus shines by pro­mot­ing good nutri­tion while deliv­er­ing a zippy taste.

Orig­i­nally known as “the for­bid­den fruit”, grape­fruit made its way to the United States in the early 1800’s via the Span­ish and French set­tlers who brought seeds to Florida.

From there, Span­ish mis­sion­ar­ies are cred­ited for bring­ing grape­fruit west to Texas, Ari­zona and Cal­i­for­nia.

Although avail­able year-​round, they are in sea­son and at their best from win­ter through early spring.

Color affects both emo­tions and mood. Win­ter is no rea­son to for­feit bright col­ors. It may well be the absolute best time of year to strut the most vibrant hues on the color chart.

Cit­rus is at peak of sea­son in avail­abil­ity and taste. Use the many vari­eties to lift spir­its, boost immu­nity and improve menus.

Out of hand snack­ing is made con­ve­nient with portable “easy peel” vari­etals. This includes navel oranges, man­darins and tan­ger­ines.

Navel oranges have a sunny fla­vor with a touch of acid­ity. These seed­less fruits are per­fect for mak­ing any dreary day a bit cheerier. A fan favorite, they are burst­ing with unreal juicy sweet­ness.

Cara Cara oranges are very sweet with pinkish-​red fruit flesh. They have hints of berry and flo­ral fla­vors for a cit­rus change of pace. Con­sider seg­ments added to yogurt, com­potes and desserts.

Lime juice, lime zest and lime wedges are a pre­mier cov­eted player in sum­mer bev­er­ages, dips, cock­tails, dress­ings, mari­nades and desserts. Oh yeah!

Never under­es­ti­mate the power of lime to uplift or trans­form the most mun­dane to be the absolute best.

Fra­grant and refresh­ing, there is some­thing dis­tinc­tively lime that can­not be repli­cated.

Limes are inte­gral to many Mex­i­can, Thai and Viet­namese dishes. They com­pli­ment part­ners like coconut milk, cilantro, mint and chili pep­pers.

Count on lime for tor­tilla soup, corn con crema, fresh salsa, and street tacos. Leche de tigre (tiger’s milk), is a Peru­vian cit­rus mari­nade that relies on fresh lime juice for its super base.

This cit­rus fruit’s high acid con­tent and bright tart­ness make it a pow­er­ful cook­ing and bak­ing ingre­di­ent. From seafood and poul­try to fresh fruits like mango, papaya and mel­ons, the smart addi­tion of lime kicks every­thing up a notch.

The 2019 Lunar New Year starts on the fifth of Feb­ru­ary. Com­ing off the Year of the Dog, this is the begin­ning of the Year of the Pig in the Chi­nese zodiac. The ele­ment for the year is Earth.

The promise for the new year is one of joy, cel­e­bra­tion and suc­cess in all areas of life.

The pig (known also as the boar) is said to be gen­er­ous, social and sta­ble.

An Earth Pig year com­bines a real­is­tic but happy-​go-​lucky socia­ble pig com­bined with the steady and sen­si­ble char­ac­ter­is­tics of Earth, it her­alds a reward­ing and pros­per­ous year. This will be a year to enjoy friend­ships and social con­tacts and come together for the com­mon good.

Before we know it, Cal­i­for­nia grown cit­rus fruits will have to make room for cher­ries, berries and stone fruits. For now, the plea­sure is in cit­rus.

Good news then that Cara Cara and blood oranges are not the only hand fruits we can indulge in for the next few weeks.

The Golden Nugget man­darin is an excep­tional, late sea­son vari­ety that is worth the recent atten­tion and new found pop­u­lar­ity.

Char­ac­ter­is­ti­cally, it is roughly rounded in shape and rather bumpy in exte­rior tex­ture. Its skin is golden orange, aro­matic and easy to peel. Its eas­ily seg­mented flesh is deep orange, ten­der, juicy, extremely sweet and always seedless.

Cold, damp months perk up from win­ter cit­rus. The skin, zest, juice and tangy flesh brighten up culi­nary choices with great fla­vor and a lively vibrancy.

Cit­rus fruits add color, tang, sweet­ness, and tart­ness. They eas­ily bring some needed bal­ance to savory, rich, or sweet dishes.

In addi­tion to numer­ous culi­nary ben­e­fits, cit­rus fruits also pro­vide a wide range of healthy, “good for you” attrib­utes. They are proven to be good med­i­cine dur­ing win­ter and beyond.

Dieti­tians and health pro­fes­sion­als heap high praise on cit­ruses for their high vit­a­min C con­tent. One medium orange pro­vides more than 100 per­cent of the rec­om­mended daily vit­a­min C needs.

Cold and flu sea­son is rea­son enough to boost our immu­nity. Fight­ing the risk of COVID-​19 is why the dou­ble down efforts focus on the cit­rus defen­sive. Lucky then that we are headed into the peak of cit­rus sea­son.

Cit­ruses help our bod­ies get rid of free rad­i­cals and pos­i­tively impact a range of meta­bolic func­tions that help us thrive.

What’s so amaz­ing is their ver­sa­til­ity. Beyond being a per­fect out-​of-​hand snack, cit­rus fruits can be enjoyed in a myr­iad of ways.

Fes­tiv­i­ties of the sea­son yield to indulging in hol­i­day cheer. Hot and cold bev­er­ages, alco­holic and non, have grown up by using bet­ter ingre­di­ents.

Craft cock­tails dis­tin­guish them­selves by their bold inclu­sions of fresh, well-​balanced ingre­di­ents.

Happy hour has got­ten more cheer­ful by elim­i­nat­ing pre­dictable canned juices and pow­dered mixes.

Try fresh blood oranges, tan­ger­ines, lemons, limes, grape­fruits, and even mel­ons for the body or base of a cock­tail or hol­i­day bev­er­age. With purer fla­vors and col­ors, there are no addi­tional addi­tives and preser­v­a­tives to weigh down or mask the drinks. Antiox­i­dants and polyphe­nols from most fresh fruits are just an added bonus.

Small batched drinks using house-​made syrups and infu­sions are keep­ing it real. Shaken or stirred, even the ice mat­ters more these days. Pre­ferred are the large, clean cubes that don’t rapidly melt and dilute the drink.
From mulled wines to sparkling drinks, unpack a lineup of good sips through fresh, sea­sonal and bold fla­vors. Fresh herbs add excite­ment and awaken the senses. Mint, rose­mary and thyme, whole or mud­dle, impart a unique taste pro­file. Pome­gran­ate juice and arils come to mind.

Mid-​March we’ll get our Irish on and cel­e­brate Saint Patrick’s Day. Wear­ing the color green is a tra­di­tional way to sup­port the hol­i­day.

March also boasts the start of Spring and Palm Sun­day. Two more days that draw atten­tion to shades of green.

On the sub­ject of emer­ald, celadon, jade and olive, use this month as a nudge toward fill­ing the plate with more things green.

Green veg­eta­bles and fruits are known for being good sources of phy­tonu­tri­ents, fiber and water that can revi­tal­ize health.

To main­tain healthy cho­les­terol lev­els, increase the con­sump­tion of green foods like avo­ca­dos, olives, green peas and grapes. They con­tain monoun­sat­u­rated fatty acids and fiber that aid in low­er­ing cho­les­terol.

Spinach, cucum­ber and green apple can aid in con­trol­ling blood pres­sure. Look­ing for a boost to the immune sys­tem? Check out all things green in the pro­duce section.

Cal­i­for­nia cit­rus vari­eties are so worth the mar­ket­ing hype. Navel oranges in par­tic­u­lar have been the stead­fast fruit we’ve come to rely on for healthy win­ter snack­ing.

Out­side the navel mar­gins are so many juicy cit­rus hand fruits that excite the food world.

Sat­suma man­darins are a Cal­i­for­nia lovely. Believe it or not, they may have first arrived here 700 years ago from Japan via Jesuits who planted them on the banks of the Mis­sis­sippi River in New Orleans.

Grow­ers in the Golden State took it from there. This loose-​skinned, sub-​acid fruit has a zip­per peel and is seed­less. What more can one ask for except the minia­ture size is per­fect for sin­gle serve snack­ing.

Com­pared to oranges in gen­eral, man­darins tend to be smaller in size, have a looser peel, and are less tart. They orig­i­nated in the Far East and were orig­i­nally exported through North Africa, where they were all tagged with the name “tan­ger­ine,” from the city of Tang­iers.

The name “tan­ger­ine” has become less generic and is now usu­ally applied to only one kind of man­darin orange. Retail­ers have come to mar­ket the dif­fer­ent cul­ti­vars by so called brand names. While all tan­ger­ines are man­darins, not all man­darins are tangerines.

What’s a sip of mojito or slice of key lime pie with­out the bright­ness of fresh lime juice? Lack­ing for starters.

Lucky then that limes are avail­able year round to impart their aro­matic, tangy good­ness.

Under­stand­ing the vari­etal dif­fer­ences in limes might be use­ful for the best choices in culi­nary appli­ca­tions.

Although there are other cit­rus species that are referred to as “limes”, the Per­sian lime is the most widely cul­ti­vated lime species com­mer­cially grown. It accounts for the largest share of the fruits sold as limes.

Extremely fla­vor­ful, Per­sian limes are a key ingre­di­ent in regional cuisines world­wide. Also known as Tahit­ian or Bearss, Per­sian limes deliver an intensely tart fla­vor to your dishes and cock­tails. Typ­i­cally sold while still dark green, they become light green to a mild yel­low as they ripen.

‘Tis the sea­son for serv­ing up spe­cial treats for every hol­i­day fes­tiv­ity. Snacks, drinks and baked goods have per­mis­sion to go a lit­tle hol­i­day crazy.

Ordi­nary bev­er­ages and plain Jane snack foods get a waver on being one hun­dred per­cent healthy this time of year.

The addi­tion of alco­hol, sugar and but­ter adds up over the extended hol­i­day period. From din­ner par­ties and open houses to office potlucks and neigh­bor­hood gath­er­ings, con­sump­tion of those off limit ingre­di­ents is off the charts.

Good news then that pro­duce offer­ings give us a chance to include some fla­vor boost­ers that are rel­a­tively harm­less. If not for calo­ries alone, their wel­comed pos­i­tive affects seem to present “magic pow­ers”.

The peels of cit­rus fruits such as oranges, man­darins, tan­ger­ines, lemons and grape­fruit con­tain potently scented nat­ural oils that release into the air when the peel is bro­ken. Their scent has been proven to be a pow­er­ful mood booster.

Sumo Cit­rus are also known as “deko­pon,” which is a Japan­ese ref­er­ence to the dis­tinc­tive top knot of the fruit.

This triple hybrid cit­rus fruit is a cross-​breed of navel oranges, pomelo and man­darin oranges.

They were first devel­oped in Japan in 1972 with tra­di­tional plant-​breeding tech­niques. When Cal­i­for­nia farm­ers began to grow the seed­less fruit, they trade­marked the name “Sumo Cit­rus”.

The name is an obvi­ous play on the phys­i­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics of the well-​known sumo wrestlers in Japan. The fruit is large in size, round in shape and instantly rec­og­nized by their top knot accent, which is the sig­na­ture hair­style of the wrestlers.

Seedlings were first imported into the United States in 1998, but because the Sumo Cit­rus is one of the most chal­leng­ing vari­eties to grow, and requires at least four years to pro­duce, it wasn’t until 2011 that they became avail­able to the pub­lic.

The fruit’s extremely del­i­cate skin is eas­ily bruised and sun­burned. Cal­i­for­nia farm­ers are ded­i­cated to the pam­pered and painstak­ing atten­tion required of Sumo Cit­rus.

Trees are hand-​pruned to allow for more sun­light to reach the fruit as it grows. Left to ripen on the tree, they are then hand-​picked when ready. They are har­vested in small totes instead of big bins as other cit­rus fruits. Floated into the pack­ing line to pre­vent bruis­ing, they are then hand-​packed into car­tons.

The seed­less cit­rus is super easy to peel and eat. The zip peel makes them con­ve­nient for lit­tle hands or any­one really who finds it tedious to peel a reg­u­lar orange.

Sumo Cit­rus are low in acid­ity, mak­ing them a good choice for those who can’t tol­er­ate a higher level of fruit acid.

Hun­ker­ing down to avoid the win­ter dol­drums requires a cer­tain amount of self-​awareness. Dreary, cold Jan­u­ary days sup­press high spir­its and kill spunk.

Need a quick boost? Skip the day spa and go straight to the fruit bowl. A shot of sun­shine and bright­ness is just a peel away.

Cit­rus ther­apy invig­o­rates the senses and tricks the mind into ener­gized, warmer thoughts.

A sim­ple act of reach­ing for any type of cit­rus– orange, man­darin or grape­fruit– sets a tone for self care and good health. This choice, above other salty or sweet snack options, rein­forces good behav­ior and new year res­o­lu­tions.

Break­ing open the skin of any easy to peel cit­rus fruit releases a burst of oil. Aro­matic and clean, the fra­grance is at once wel­com­ing and familiar.

Another four to five weeks of win­ter ahead means there is still plenty of time to enjoy late sea­son cit­rus fruits.

The increas­ing demand for man­darins is tes­ta­ment to the per­fect gem of a snack or lunch box treat.

Man­darins are known for their sweet fla­vor and dis­tinc­tive fra­grance. Easy peel skins and bite size seg­ments make man­darins a pop­u­lar go to pick for cit­rus fans of all ages.

Lucky that there are late sea­son vari­eties to grab our atten­tion amidst the crowded space of apples and pears. These juicy fruits can be added to every­thing from fruit sal­ads to stir fries — jams and pre­serves to win­ter cock­tails.

One late comer, that is new on the scene at this point in the cit­rus har­vest is the Gold Nugget man­darin. Cal­i­for­nia grown, this seed­less, sweet tan­ger­ine named after its bright orange, slightly bumpy rind.

This hybrid is a cross between two non-​commercial. It was devel­oped by the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia at River­side. The Gold Nugget is a great juicer, aver­ag­ing a 50 per­cent juice con­tent. The fruit itself has a deep orange color inte­rior flesh with a mod­er­ately fine tex­ture. Pro­fes­sional taste pan­els con­sider this to be one of the very best fla­vored cit­rus’ in the world with a rich, full-​bodied taste.