Winter is upon us, and that means the citrus are ripening! We have 11 citrus trees, 8 of which were planted 3 years ago. Because these trees are still young, we promoted branch growth by thinning most of the fruit when they were dime sized. Despite all of the thinning, there is still a substantial amount of fruit that is almost ready. In a few weeks, there will be lots of tangelos, tangerines, lemons, limes, grapefruit, and 4 different kinds of oranges. We have been waiting all year to have fresh squeezed juice, but what else can you do besides juice them? Here are some of the recipes we have been gathering all year long in anticipation of the citrus harvest!
Grapefruit Recipes:
Lime Recipes:
- Key Lime Pie
- Triple Citrus Bars (uses limes, oranges, and lemons)
Orange Recipes:
- Blood Orange Curd
- Blood Orange Sorbet
- Copycat Orange Dream Machine (my favorite Jamba Juice drink!)
- No-Bake Orange and Cream Pie
One of our established trees happens to be a sour orange, also known as bitter orange or Seville orange. Citrus trees in Arizona are often grafted onto sour orange root stocks because they are disease resistant. At one time, this tree was not a sour orange. What most likely happened was frost killed the citrus graft, which allowed the root stock to grow and produce fruit. We considered removing this tree, but decided to keep it after reading about making marmalade from its fruit. We followed this recipe for Seville orange marmalade and it turned out delicious!
For our favorite lemon recipes, see our previous post here.
