Oranges

Think global, eat local. The farmer's market mantra has been popular for several years. It is something I think highly desirable. I do, however, allow certain gross deviations. One is for bananas. Bananas are one of the few fruit that ripen off the vine, and thus long time from farm to mouth does not hamper things that much. Another is for citrus. I drop my eat local rule for citrus for the same reason as for bananas, that citrus travels well. More important to my sensibility, good citrus has a defined seasonality to it. For instance, Texas grapefruit are not currently in market. And, of course, I like the variety of varieties.

At present, we have five types of oranges at the Bungalow: Temple (River) oranges from Florida; blood oranges from California (Sunkist); clementines from Spain; navel oranges from Florida; and navel oranges from California. Myself and the chowhounditas plan on conducting a more formal tasting soon--I want to add mineolas first. I would say, that right now, I am especially keen on the Temple oranges. These oranges, so quaintly, still have seeds. Lots of seeds. And the skin does not break away so easily. You can see why Navel's control the market. Yet, this is a great orange, musky and sweet.
To be continued.