

To further complicate things, they're marketed under brand names like Delites and Cuties, often in little 5-pound boxes. Some are seedless, some aren't, and some can be either, depending on how they're grown. There are Page mandarins, clementines, Dancy and Fairchild tangerines, W. Both "tangerine" and "mandarin" are used interchangeably to cover many different kinds of vaguely related fruits. The season stretches out from autumn's first satsumas until June.

One reason tangerines, or mandarins, don't get their due is that it's easy to take them for granted. And segments arranged in circular rows can brighten up a custard tart. Kids love them, because they're small, sweet and easy to peel.Īs far as cooking goes, their main use is in winter salads, where they can provide a sweet burst of flavor amid bitter greens and nuts or nut oils. He could be describing any kind of tangerine sampled at its peak.Ī bowl of pretty tangerines with fresh green stems and leaves can add holiday zest to a dining table or kitchen counter, and often serves as a symbol for gold among Chinese people celebrating the lunar New Year. Yes, he's selling his fruit, but that doesn't make him wrong. And they're juicy, and they have this little burst of flavor. They're the essence of tangerine, they're so good. The peel falls off and what's revealed inside is like baby's toes - tiny segments, and they're perfect and clean. Listen to Ojai, Calif., grower Jim Churchill, who calls himself Tangerine Man, describing his miniature kishu variety, which is about the size of a half-dollar and will flash through the market for a few short weeks in January: And A well-grown tree-ripened fruit is a miracle of sweetness, with a complex flavor and just-the-right acidic edge.
FAIRCHILD TANGERINE FRUIT SKIN
Its skin slips off as easily as Britney's clothes. Tips: This sweet, creamy pear is nicknamed the “sugar pear.” Seckels tend to be smaller than most pear varieties.Ĭara Cara oranges: San Joaquin Valley, $1.29 to $1.This winter treat never seems to elicit the ecstatic swooning and drooling that greets summer's cherries and peaches, or the first strawberries of spring.Ī good tangerine - or mandarin, another word for the same group of citrus fruits - is a thing of beauty, in orangey shades from honeyed gold to near red. Seckel pears: Lake County and Oregon, $1.29 to $1.49 per pound

Read more of Michael Marks’ Produce Picks at IN THE BINS Expect the sugar and flavor to get even better with the first frost. Satsuma mandarins should be selling in local markets for 99 cents to $1.49 per pound. They’re seedless and easy to peel, and the sweet, rich segments are easy to separate. The fruit is so tender, it almost melts in your mouth. Satsuma is the name of a former province, now Kagoshima Prefecture, on the southern tip of Japan’s Kyushu Island, where the fruit, we believe, originated. Today, about 80 percent of the Mandarin acreage in Japan is the Satsuma. Fortunately, that has changed, because Satsumas are the best mandarin oranges in every way.

A few California growers were raising the glorious Satsuma mandarin, but the vast majority of that fruit was exported to Pacific Rim countries and Japanese markets. They were so difficult to peel and just loaded with seeds. Forty years ago, if you bought a mandarin orange at the market, chances were high it was a Fairchild tangerine. I don’t know why they were even popular.
