The fruit would ripen around late May - early June but would hold on the tree until late September getting sweeter and juicier as it hung around. This made for a great staggered harvest across the whole winter, which was great.
However, after a winter storm or particularly windy day we'd often have a big drop onto the ground. And of course towards the end of the season we were often left with quite a large harvest to deal with. So, I had to build my repertoire of orange uses and ways to preserve them.
Orange tree with potential harvest.
Being citrus season I thought I'd share my top 6 ways to preserve an orange glut, skin and all, in case you find yourself in possession of a prolific tree or a fruit market bargain.
1. Freeze the juice and for the peel either zest and preserve or dry slices of peel. The zest can be frozen or dried and used in any dish where you would add a bit of citrus flavour. The peel is great for adding to tea - especially chai. Or in a non-edible use I've added them to homemade fire lighters before too.
2. Boiled whole and frozen for making future orange cakes such as this amazing choc orange one or this almond and orange cake. Or you could make up the cake and freeze it using either recipe or I also love Rhonda's whole orange cake recipe if I don't need a flourless version.
3. Dried orange slices. These are delicious to snack on as is, decorate desserts with or dip in dark chocolate - choose your own adventure. I dried mine using my dehydrator but you could also do so in a very low oven.
Dried slices of sunshine...zesty and delicious.
4. Orange cordial - another nod to Rhonda here for her adaptable summer cordial info.
5. Marmalade - I couldn't do a post on preserving oranges without it. We don't tend to use much marmalade straight up but I add it to my muesli balls and also like to add a spoonful or two when making chocolate cake or pudding to add a jaffa-esque taste.
6. Preserved Oranges - I recently posted about how I preserve lemons. One year I had such a glut of oranges that I thought I'd give them a go using the same technique and I'm happy to report it was a successful experiment.
Preserved oranges with cinnamon.
Sadly we are no longer enjoying the harvest from our amazing tree. But I do still have a few of my preserved goodies from this time last year to enjoy.
Do you preserve oranges? Any techniques to add to the list?
Dealing with any other garden gluts to preserve at the moment?
Laura, we ate all our oranges this year but still have some mandarins at the top of the old tree. Perhaps today's wind will make them drop. I have made a couple of versions of Rhonda's whole orange cake. Yum yum!
ReplyDeleteHi there Laura,
ReplyDeleteI live in Port Augusta and I am still picking citrus. They is so, so juicy and sweet at the moment. I have had an abundance of grapefruit, mandarins, oranges and a few lemons. I do get given lemons by my friend who has too many for just one person. This year I juiced a big heap of the mandarins and froze the juice, have also made a couple of batches of marmalade using a mix of all the fruit and it turned out delicious. I decided to make fruit cake using orange and mandarin juice to soak the fruit in. I am now vegan and have yet to try Rhonda's orange cake vegan style, but it can be done :)
I like the look of your dried oranges, I don't think I have enough left to try this year, but will definitely do it next season. I wonder how grapefruit would go dried, whether the taste would change and turn sweet? Haha I doubt it but I might try a couple (thinking I could maybe soak in mandarin juice first).
I have been quiet around blog-land lately, but hope to return on a regular basis. I find that I prefer blogging to facebook and instagram, although IG is convenient for short sharp posts.
Wishing you a lovely weekend,
xTania
Oh this is me right now! I have the last of the crop to go, I am intending to juice some, but of course - cordial! That would make a lovely treat. I have a couple more orange cakes and some citrus marmalade to go too.
ReplyDeletexx