These wonderful deep green oranges caught my eye at the markets the other day. 
Oranges usually mean the winter is right around the corner and with the slight chill in the Manila air…it must be orange season. Dalandans, calamansi, dayap and other citrus plans are all fruiting in abundance… According to the Purdue University website, this wonderful orange (citrus reticulata var. Satsuma) is a member of the Mandarin family that is characterized by an easy-to-peel skin. The fruit itself can have a deep and intense flavor though quite a few fruit do tend to be “lemons†in that they can be dry and tasteless. These particular Satsumas were grown in Nueva Vizcaya, the avowed citrus capital of the country…
I used the fruit in a locally grown fennel and orange salad. 
Just cut the fennel into very thin slices (I use a mandoline) then put orange segments (without the pulp) and some orange juice from the fruit, olive oil salt and pepper. This is an extremely easy and delicious salad to make. I found that the Satsumas also looked great as part of a fruit basket. I purchased four fruit at the market and they came out to about PHP80 or less than US 40 cents each!
8 Responses
hi mm, you mentioned the Purdue website. Did you graduate from Purdue?
louie, no, I didn’t graduate from Purdue but they must have a superb agricultural school as their website on various plants, fruits, trees is stunningly good…
Hi MM,I love almost all varieties of this citrus fruit and I am glad that we seem to have several citrus growers who have go been improving their crops. Last October, in their Southern Luzon Festival at the Festival Mall here in Alabang, I bought some varieties of oranges and ponkan which are juicy and sweet. Their skin may not look so good but their inside are far better than the imported ones. Another good kind which I have tried year after year is the Perante oranges.I just bought some last weekend at Makati Supermarket here in Alabang and they’re good and sweet. They are now bigger in size and easier to peel than their smaller ones a few years back but just as juicy and sweet.
MM, I love our locally-grown oranges in Nueva Vizcaya, juicy and sweet. I first tasted this variety when we were in Baguio. Fortunately, we can buy this here in Manila.
Correction, I think it was Central Luzon Festival instead of Southern Luzon, sorry about that. I too am glad that we can buy their produce here in Metro Manila.
juice them there really good
i am so happy that people like you are appreciating our citrus products..i am from nueva vizcaya and we own a citrus farm..actually its in my birthplace were this fruits are grown..so thank you very much..my parent’s and my co-villager’s hardwork isn’t a waste at all..it is really hard to maintain this industry because it requires passion,hardwork and involves a lot of money for its maintenance..but we are really worried that citrus industry would soon vanish due to mining industry..these mining corporations are doing everything just to succeed in penetrating our place though they already succeeded in some parts..it is really a burden for our parents since this serves as our source of livelihood..i may be too young to concern about this things but i can’t help it since it involves us all..i hope you guys won’t stop buying our products as a support..=)..
I couldn’t find those satsuma oranges anymore. Are they in the market?