Peak citrus season is in full swing in Australia with fresh Australian grown produce available at your local green grocer.
Citrus fruits are rich in multiple nutrients such as vitamin C, flavonoids, and fibre which confer vascular protection, reduce inflammation, improve gastrointestinal function and health, and play an important role in preventing conditions like diabetes, cancer, neurological disease.(Source)
Fresh citrus make a great, healthy addition to a balanced diet.
Let us know your favourite citrus (select one only):
Blood Orange
Grapefruit
Kafir Lime
Kumquat
Lime
Mandarin
Orange
Pomelos
Tangello
Other (let us know below)
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@phb, @Gaby and @vax2000 would like to thank all the members of the community which contributed to June 2023 Food Champions Sandwich Challenge. We would also like to specially congratulate @btone and @yvonne1 for their thoughtful posts in this challenge.
First is the lemon. Very flexible in food or drink whether sweet or savoury, the juice, flowers, leaves and peel are all very attractive and useful. Readily available, cheap and easy to grow yourself. I couldnāt cook for more than a few days without lemons. Too much cooking lacks acidity (one of the five base flavours) and lemon juice is often more acceptable than vinegar. The only downside is the juice isnāt really suitable to drink on its own.
Second is tangello. The best fruit for juice by far, more and better flavour than the orange. They can be expensive unless you grow them.
Third is Tahitian lime which is better in aroma than the lemon but often expensive to buy and difficult to grow if there is frost.
If only kumquats were 20 times bigger! Great aroma but tedious to pick and to use in cooking except whole, almost no juice, often too many seeds.
Mandarins - bland but kids like them.
Kafir lime - great in some foods where you can use the peel and leaves
but no juice. A nice little tree that will grow in a tub, look pretty and behave on your balcony.
Related questionā¦Iāve had quite a few mandarins lately that have had some kind of disease in them that Iāve never seen previously - basically, thereās no sign of anything on the unbroken skin, but once you peel it and break out the segments, thereās something black and ugly down the centre pith. It may or may not affect all segments, so you can eat some before you see it on the inner edge of othersā¦
Most of the remaining mandarins are unaffected, and it seems that even a badly infected (or afflicted) mandarin will appear perfect on the outside.
Has anyone else seen this? Iāve been eating them for years, and Iāve never seen it before.
I like lemon and also lime a bit more than lemon.
The two standouts for me are the ābush lemonā and āfinger limeā.
The bush lemon is not a native, but itās now naturalised, popping up in pastures and bushland at will. Itās a hardy citrus which may be why itās commonly used as root stock. No doubt the root stock out-survives the grafts often enough leading to the root stock fruiting and the seed spreading. The lemon flavour and heavy pithy skin make it ideal for jam and preserves.
The finger lime is on trend as a native food. I like that it offers up lemon in a different package thatās more than just a drizzle of juice to add to the cooking or dressing. Itās natural only to a small part of the east cost of Australia including our area, but can be grown successfully far more widely.
P.S. there are another 5 species of citrus native to Australia. Iāve only had one other the dooja or round lime (Citrus australis) a useful alternative to the Tahitian lime, not so juicy, and not commercially grown AFAIK.
The black flesh in citrus is probably a type of mould which can affect the fruit if it is stressed or poorly stored. Basically, it is going bad and should not be eaten. I think there is no way to see this prior to purchase, so best just look for fruits with fresher, oily and bright skins.
Mandarins say winter citrus to me; easily spotted in the F&V isle, the orange coloured fruit adds sunshine to drab winters here in Melbourne.
Sweet and easy to peel the Imperial variety is a popular one. My father planted an Imperial mandarin tree in his backyard and very soon there was plenty of fruit to be handed around to the neighboursā children, to the local community centre, and for the possums to leave scraps all around the place.
I love Mandarins, I am enjoying exploring new varieties at good green grocers. I had a Daisy one last week & I loved it. A bit harder to peel, but flavour & colour closer to an orange. Still with the Mandarin segments though.
I notice some Mandarins have a resin like material in the centre that is not visible from the outside. It does not effect the flavour of the flesh, so I do not think it is a sign of the fruit deteriorating.
A tip for buying good citrus as well as colour is weight, the waxy appearance can be faked with lemons and other citrus being waxed by retailers. Hence why citrus needs rubbing & washing especially if you want to use the peel in cooking or for salad and sauces and drinks.
I love citrus and that we can grow it in some form all year round in our wide brown land! Big thanks to all our dedicated growers, especially those commuting to biodiversity and organic & biodynamic treatment of the soil and trees.
The only downside is the juice isnāt really suitable to drink on its own.
I drink fresh lemon juice (or, when in season, lime season) in soda water from the Sodastream. Itās cheap, very refreshing, and not disgustingly sweet like supermarket juices and other drinks.
And, after years of doing this Iām only slightly more bitter and sour
The best citrus is the Lemonade. Lemony, but sweeter. Eaten or used much like an orange or a lemon.
I have gone off oranges lately. Not sure why. Perhaps I ate too many. Lemons on the other hand are a constant favourite and I am happy to eat them in lieu of oranges. We also juice them and use the juice for food and drink flavouring.
Fresh new season citrus fruit is divine. However, too many retailers are flogging old cold storage mandarins in netting bags at a cheap price. If the price it way below the non-bagged fruit you can be sure itās leftover cold storage from last season. Same applies to apples, so many apples sound and look like new season but within a day are mushy inside. Infuriates me.
Last season - that sounds like a long time to store citrus. Would it be more than likely fruit from this season that was sold as carry over or held back by the growers? Cold storage at farm or wholesaler necessary.
All fruits and vegetables have seasonal availability. For fruit the windows for ripening are relatively short. Availability is influenced by seasonal variations, availability of late or early fruiting varieties, and difference in ripening periods between different growing districts. Itās likely that at any time other than the very start of a season some produce will go into extended cold storage to help meet consumer demand over a longer period of time.
Iāve certainly been caught out by citrus fruit that has been in storage for too long or slow to move at the retailer going mouldy or if poorer quality. The best protection for consumers would be a mandated requirement for fresh produce to have the date picked (licked - yes missed that one) and district from clearly visible. For prepackaged product including the bags of fruit which are tagged or labelled an easier step than loose items. Although ColesWorth make good use of the plasticised stickers to add product codes/branding to many of those too!
Apologies for straying away from the topic - Iāll just add I love fresh mandarins. They come into season with a rush and are only in good supply for a relatively short season.
P.S.
Cross between a lemon and mandarin. Most of our traditional citrus cultivars derive from just a handful of original species.
Unlike apples which are cold stored for many months and between seasons, citrus isnāt cold stored for long durations as the fruit is susceptible to cold storage injury.. The citrus one buys will be from the current season.
Notwithstanding this, when citrus is stored for to long the quality deteriorates. With citrus to check freshness, look at the overall fruit condition and where the stem attached to the fruit. If ithe stem attachment point light in colour and looks fresh/healthy, the fruit is flesher than fruit with brown or discoloured attachment points.
