We've talked on this blog before about growing oranges. The truth is that the Sanguinelli Orange is grown just like any other; what's different is the variety.
There are different groups and varieties of oranges, and the Sanguinelli belongs to its own group: Blood Oranges. To learn a bit more about it, we headed out to María Jesús's field. It's a field of a hundred orange trees, tended by hand, the traditional way, by her. She's been caring for her trees with love and dedication for ten years now.
Orange trees, like other trees, have to be grafted to bear fruit. That means we have one tree we call the rootstock, and another tree with a variety. The rootstock has to be grafted with the variety so it bears fruit with certain characteristics. In this article on our blog, we answer any questions you might have about why trees are grafted.
But back to Sanguinelli Oranges, also known as Red Oranges or Blood Oranges: to grow them, first you have to graft the rootstock with the Sanguinelli variety.
Then you look after them like any other orange tree and, finally, wait for the cold to hit them, the key to getting that reddish colour.
Everything in María Jesús's field is beautifully looked after. She hasn't had it for many years, but she threw herself into it completely to grow the best Sanguinelli oranges in the area:
I got into this because I bought a plot of land and I'm devoting myself to planting and then harvesting what I think is the best orange there is. The Sanguinelli has great flavour, lots of juice, and it's perfect for eating fresh.
Plus, it's good for people with diabetes or high cholesterol because it isn't very sugary. Kids can happily suck it through a little hole too, and they get the juice in perfect condition, because it hasn't touched plastic or glass. It's completely natural, straight from the tree.
María Jesús decided to hire an agronomist to advise her so she could do every step properly and harvest her oranges following a plan made specifically for her crops:
She drew up a growing, feeding and natural fertilising plan and everything, so I could grow in my garden. My grandparents were country people, so I think of it as the orange of my childhood. It's the one I like best and the one I grow on this plot.
If there's one thing all of us fellow farmers at Campos del Abuelo share, it's a love for what we do. Honestly, farming is very hard work and, without a passion for the land, it would be almost impossible.
In María Jesús's case, she bought her trees at three years old and planted them:
I didn't buy them small, or as seedlings or anything like that, because that takes a long time. So I went to a nursery and bought trees that were already grown, and together with two or three experts, we planted, measured the field and I got this process started, a pretty elaborate one that takes many years.
Training is important to look after the trees well, and our Sanguinelli Orange farmer did just that when it came to pruning:
I took courses with experts who taught me how and when to prune each type of each orange variety. Pruning a little sapling that's just been planted is different, because you have to guide it and give it the best shape for the orange tree so you can harvest later.
It's not just about having the trees and waiting for them to bear fruit: behind every crop there's work, study and many hours of soil and hoe. For example, María Jesús tells us that when there were frosts and the orange trees were still tiny, she covered all hundred trees one by one.
It was a huge amount of work, but that's how she made sure the trees survived and carried on their cycle. They're the same trees that today, after ten years of work, give her the best Sanguinelli Oranges in the area.
For María Jesús, the Sanguinelli Orange she grows is great both for eating and for juicing, and they taste like real oranges: just the right amount of sugar and just the right acidity. To wrap up, standing beneath her orange trees, she tells us that the whole thing has been a huge learning experience for her:
Look, at first I cleared the field by hand. No tractors or anything, I did it with a hoe, and then I started learning about the different farm tools, but all manual.
And then, once the land was clear, I started planting simple things: pumpkins, vegetables, then the fruit trees, mixing it up a bit. I realised how hard it is for fruit trees to take hold and get going, lemon trees for example, which need a lot of water. It's been such a huge learning curve, you know? You have to watch everything.
The area where her oranges grow is ideal because it has the most important thing for growing Sanguinelli Oranges: temperature swings. That is what gives this orange variety its reddish colour, when it goes from heat to cold. First the peel takes on colour, and then it spreads until it reaches the flesh.
Nature is amazing. This orange was born from what's called a spontaneous mutation, in other words, naturally. And from then on, people started growing it regularly.
Its season starts in mid-March, although some start picking at the end of February. For the trees in María Jesús's field, the harvest starts in March, and goes on until there are no oranges left on the trees.
And nature amazes us not only with the fruit it gives, but also with the way it affects us as people. To finish, María Jesús tells us:
This work with the trees and the land has saved me from stress, from anxiety, from medication. I don't regret what I've done. I've spent so many hours in the field. I've even forgotten to come down for lunch or dinner.
There's nothing like nature, and it's a little bit magical, because at first I had no water, and until I got it, rainwater was enough, because the land was really good too. I've truly been very lucky to be able to do this, you know? Nature heals.
That's all for today. María Jesús's story with her Sanguinelli Oranges is inspiring. There's always time to do what you love. Especially when the fruits of it are healthy food.
Remember, at Campos del Abuelo you can build your own box of fruit and veg from just one kilo. You place your order, we harvest it and send it to you with all the freshness and flavour of the field.
Until next time, and thanks so much for reading!
