Sometimes it's not that easy to tell whether a Valencian orange is still good for juicing or eating. In this article, straight from the field, we'll tell you about some of the problems an orange can have. As farmers, we're going to share what we know, so you can tell when it's not a good idea to eat that orange you're unsure about.
As always when we talk about oranges, we turn to Eduardo, farmer and founder of Campos del Abuelo. See how simply he explains how to tell if an orange is in good shape:
To know if an orange is good on the outside, one of the conditions is that it's firm, the fruit has to be firm, not soft. That's really important. The colour, as a rule, should be a deep orange, especially in the winter varieties. And when you smell it, it has a fresh orange scent, not a medicinal smell, which is what you get from the ones that have spent a long time in cold storage with treatments to make them last.
Something important. Fruits and vegetables belong to a particular growing season. It's all about the weather conditions the plant needs to sprout, pollinate, flower and then bear fruit. That's why our first recommendation is to eat oranges in season.
Just like with avocados, sometimes they're picked before they're ripe. Then they're kept in cold rooms and ripened with strange chemicals.
In our case, in our fields in the Ribera Alta del Júcar, in Valencia (Spain), we pick the oranges from the tree at their perfect ripeness, pack them in boxes and send them straight to your home.
But when the opposite happens and they go through a whole unnatural process, chances are they won't reach the shop in good condition and, once they get to your home, well, they end up going bad. Sometimes the oranges on display look great on the outside, but inside their quality is questionable.
Why are some oranges treated with post-harvest chemicals?
Of course, that's not the case with the oranges we grow at Campos del Abuelo, but while chatting with Eduardo, we asked him why oranges are treated with chemicals on the outside once they've been picked, and he told us:
For example, some fungicides are used to soak the oranges in order to protect them. Because the storage rooms where the oranges are kept are humid, it's very likely that an orange that's been pierced or damaged will rot. So, to stop it from contaminating the rest, they're soaked in fungicide, and that one will rot, but not the ones touching it.
Even though this always affects the taste of the orange, it's a useful tool when you're working in a warehouse. Especially when a storage room holds 10,000, 15,000 or even 20,000 kilos of oranges. If they weren't protected and some rotted, it would be a disaster, because in just a few days the fungal spores spread from one to another very quickly.
Campos del Abuelo oranges don't go through this process. Quite the opposite: they go from the tree to your home without any post-harvest chemicals. That's why they're just as good on the inside as they look on the outside.
Orange tips straight from the field
So, here's the most important tip in this article once again: eat oranges during orange season. And if you don't want to go without your juice, you can always freeze orange juice to drink later. Although, honestly, nothing beats freshly squeezed, mainly because when you store it, it loses flavour and nutrients too.
For anyone who missed it, in Spain orange season starts in autumn with the Navelina orange and ends in summer with the Valencia Late variety.
Farmer's tip: late November is when oranges get really good.
Which leads us to tip number two: eat oranges whose origin and provenance you know. That way you can be sure they haven't travelled too far and that they reach your home in good condition.
To wrap up, Eduardo tells us a bit more about oranges and the key factors that make them good or bad…
In general, once the orange is picked, the most important factor is time. The more time passes, the more the orange deteriorates, the smell of the cold rooms, the products that have been applied, all of this deteriorates it in some way. And as for orange peel that can start to look ugly on the outside, that's down to the passing of time, which gradually wears it down.
As I said at the start, the best thing is for the orange to be firm, smell like orange and have good colour. With those three things, the orange is usually in perfect condition.
There's one particular case that can happen if you buy 100% natural oranges: a little white or green mould may appear on parts of the peel. It can happen because the orange has been pierced, but what you should do is remove that orange so the rest of the box doesn't get infected and clean the others straight away to prevent contamination.
We hope you've found these tips useful. Remember that by visiting our online shop of fruit and vegetables straight from our fields you can customise your box with the seasonal produce you want and have it delivered to your home.
See you next time, and thanks for reading!
