Choosing Citrus

Every week for almost a decade I've been buying citrus from Jorge at the Hollywood Farmers Market. With his tutoring I'm getting pretty good at picking out the best fruit.

Today he had the first pomelos of the season. The first pick is always a little tart, but I dug in his crate and found one which looked a little brown and battered - these tend to be the sweetest.

Then I moved on to his crates of grapefruit. The fruit was firm and boldly colored. I asked if he had any old grapefruits left - the heavy wrinkled ones which are so sweet and full of flavor. He said another customer had got there before me and hunted out the old ones. I was lucky to find a few he'd missed. I bought some of the newer ones as well, but they will be a little tart.

Tangelos

This is one of the things I've learned about citrus - older is better. Not older as in sitting on a shelf for a few weeks, but older as in left on the tree longer to get sweeter and riper. Dry weather during the final ripening is good too, because it intensifies the sweetness. The more patient the farmer, the better the citrus. At home, the oranges on our tree look beautiful, but I don't think they'll be really sweet until March. We also have 11 precious tangelos on an ultra-dwarf tree and I'm reluctant to sacrifice one to see if they're ripe. Jorge suggested I wait until March, which I will unless the squirrel makes off with one, like he did our tangerines.

I had been leaving the tangerines on our little tree to ripen further, but the squirrel started eating them. We do not have enough to share! So I picked the lot and found they were fabulous - sweet and juicy, best tangerines ever. Next year I'll know to sample the first one at Christmas - hopefully before the squirrel thinks of it.

So the moral is, with citrus fruits look for heavy fruit that is slightly battered, maybe even wrinkled. And don't buy them the first week they show up at the market. Tangerines from one stall were tart in mid-December, but this week they were sweet and juicy. Extra time on the trees made all the difference.