I love them. Used to eat them in Sicily when I was stationed there from '83 - '86. They’ve been quite hard to find until recently. I used to be able to get them at one farmer’s market in San Diego, but I never saw them in Virginia until recently.
The name doesn’t bother me, but the color can be a surprise when you first encounter it. When I first ate one in Sicily, I thought it was a regular orange until I got the peel off. But they are delicious. The ones I’ve seen recently have been labeled “Moro Oranges” rather than “Blood Oranges” – maybe for the benefit of those who would be put off by the name.
My son (whom I was pregnant with when I left there) was deployed last year and they stopped at Sig. He loved it – says if he could get orders there, he’d seriously consider taking them. Anyway, they were at the club there one night and he told his buddies, “Hey! I was conceived here.”
I love blood oranges. I put them in fruit salad. I bought some for Easter fruit salad but was disappointed with how little flesh they had – almost all peel. But as the produce market was out of raspberries (!) they were great for color.
I have bought these things three times, and always been disapointed:
-they cost 3 x what a good navle orange costs
-they are mostly peel
-they have a bland, insispid flavor
Honestly, why do people grow them? To me, they are not as good ans any of the common orange varieties. I guess its a case of expensive=good?
Its like a Rolls-Royce-a car that costs 5 x what a cadillac does, and doesn’t work as well.
No kidding. When were you there again? My ex-husband was stationed at the ASWOC from '83 - '86. My current husband was stationed at HC-4.
Hmmm. That sounds more Peyton-Placey than it was. I went to Sig with my first husband – we were on the rocks already, and split up before we’d been there a month. 6 months later, I met my current husband.
I was there from 94-96. Walked into the shop an E-3 and left an E-5. I hit my next command, a guided missile cruiser, an OS2 with zero sea time. That made me as popular as a fart in church.
We were very busy when I was there with Sharp Guard/Deny Flight operations over Yugoslavia. For my first few months, 70-hour workweeks were the norm.
I guess – E-3 to E-5 in 2 years is fast. But you tenant command and squadron guys really worked hard and lots of hours. Personally, I worked for the Air Station itself and found it a pretty easy tour. My husband, though, at HC-4, he worked his fanny off. You guys might as well have been on sea duty.
I’ve found them at a store in Portland called Limbo…it’s in the same structure as a Trader Joe’s. Big, but only half the fruit was red.
The best ones I got at a store called Zupans. BIG oranges, very little peel, and the fruit was the most gorgeous color I’ve ever seen on a blood orange.
Someone mentioned they can be too tart. I imagine there are many varieties of blood orange just like any other citrus. I do think tartness is a characteristic of them, but it’s best when balanced by sweetness.
Incidentally, I had never heard of blood oranges until I was required to read a novel entitled The Blood Oranges in college (ca 1991), and had never seen them until a year ago. My OP is serious, in that I’m afraid they’ll die out, but I do agree that the name is really cool.
I’m not sure how it was when you were in, but Sigonella in the 1990s was considered, for rotational purposes, Type 3 sea duty instead of regular shore duty or overseas duty. The workload and the lack of normal shore duty amenities were a big part of this classification.
When I moved to Arizona, I developed a bit of a Citrus growing affliction. I currently have more than 20 varieties planted. It’s unlikely that Blood Oranges will die out, but they have already become a “boutique” fruit. There are a few nurseries that are dedicated to growing obscure citrus, so I think they are safe: Citrus Variety Info Chart
I can only imagine you’ve been terribly unlucky, or whoever is selling them to you has an inherently bad supplier.
They’re usually very juicy, tender-fleshed and - as we’re all struggling to describe, a uniquely tart-yet-sweet flavour. I think they’re almost ‘fizzy’ - like eating sherbet (disambiguation: Sherbet means a fizzy powder, eaten as candy, here)
