Taste the Sunshine!

By Uncle Paul

In this article I would like to tell you the story of the Beauty and the Beast and the Mystical Giant and the Little Guy. The Beauty was born at the Hacienda de Cara Cara in Valencia, Venezuela. She is a Venezueland beauty who goes by the name of cara cara and is my favorite orange of the year. She has a beautiful dark-orange skin and the inside flesh is a strikingly deep rich salmon color. Her taste is rich and sweet with a hint of raspberry or cherry yet she is low in acidity and seedless. When you cut a cara cara orange in half you will be amazed at its color and when you taste one you will never want any other kind of orange again. Truly a beauty and a remarkable piece of fruit! The cara cara is a result of a marriage between the Washington Navel and the Brazilian Bahia – a marriage made in heaven.

The cara cara is also an awesome source of vitamin C and contains cartenoid, flavenoids, and coumarins that are considered powerful anticarcinogens. It is also sodium free. Cara caras contain lycopene, which give the deep salmon color to its pulp.

Now I would like to tell you about the Beast. Over 70 years ago the Beast was discovered growing wild in the jungles of Jamaica. It is hideous to look at. It has various differently odd shapes and its skin is pock marked. It’s name best decribes it and that name is ugli fruit. Though it may look terrible it has a heart of gold. Ugli fruit is a cross between a mandarin orange and a pomelo (the original grapefruit) and it combines the best characteristics of each. Its puffy thick skin peels very easily. I describe the flavor as delightfully tart yet sweet. Its flesh is pinkish orange. And you can either peel it like a tangerine or cut it in half and serve it like a grapefruit. The smaller ones I have found to be sweeter than the larger ones.

Now I would like to tell you about the Mystical Giant known as the pommel or pummelo. This giant citrus fruit is native to Malaysia. It is cultivated in California and Israel and has been grown by the Chinese for thousands of years. A pomelo is the largest of all citrus. They can grow to be as large as one foot in diameter and up to 25 pounds. The rind is very thick but soft and easy to peel away. The resulting fruit is light yellow to coral-pink flesh and can vary from juicy to slightly dry and from seductively spicy-sweet to tangy and tart. The pomelo is also known as a Shaddock. The pomelo is called Shaddock after an English sea captain, Captain Shaddock, who introduced the seed to the West Indies in the 17th century from the Malay Archipelago. A great pomelo is my favorite grapefruit. The flesh is sweeter and chewier than grapefruit. To choose a good one find one that is heavy. Its rind is thick and it is what they make candied citron out of. The Chinese boil the skins and the leaves of the pomelo to prepare a ceremonial bath to “ritually cleanse a person and repel evil.” Pommelos are especially popular for Chinese New Year. The Chinese believe the delectable pommelo is a sign of prosperity and good fortune They are often left on doorsteps as a gift of good luck, respect, and love.

You can’t talk about giants without talking about the little guys. These are the tangerines and mandarins. Tangerines are in the mandarin family. They are an excellent lunchbox delight or a take-along walkabout snack. They are a great way to get a boost of energy. They are easy to peel, wonderfully sweet and highly nutritious. My favorite is the clementine tangerine or the satsuma mandarin orange. Both are seedless, easy to peel, super sweet, and a great fruit for young kids, A small tangerine will have more usable vitamin C than a large orange. People who have a difficult time digesting oranges find tangerines more agreeable. They are also an excellent source of B1. Another of my favorites is the wonderful honey tangerine. The honey tangerine has seeds but few and boy is it worth it. Once you taste one you will realize the name is no accident. They are small and flat with a smooth skin the zips right off. The “honey” in its name is an understatement.

There is no better way to get rid of the winter blues than tasting and savoring the sunshine in the beautiful citrus I have described and there are many more delightful varieties. Enjoy the Beauty, enjoy the Beast, give the Giants as a gift of good luck and prosperity, and take along all the Little Guys to brighten up your day. Citrus is truly the sunshine of winter.

Uncle Paul, along with his wife Calla, owns Uncle Paul’s European Style Open Air Produce Market, 2310 SE Hawthorne 503-484-8612.