What do I do with two big trees absolutely bursting with ripe, more or less inedible oranges? These are very, very sour. So sour that I’ve substituted them for the lemons that I put in my tea, which is marginally acceptable, except they seem to be more acidic than lemons, which is not exactly easy on the heartburn.
So, the rhetorical question is, who on earth would plant ornamental oranges in a place where yummy, delicious navel oranges/lemons/limes/grapefruit would do just as well?
…and the real question is, does anyone have any ideas about what I can do with all this fruit short of throwing it all out?
The same thing to do if life hands you too many lemons - make lemon (orange) ade!
They’d probably make some pretty good cocktails as well.
What else? I’d use them wherever you’d use lemons. Like, throw one or two in the cavity of a chicken and roast it. Use the juice to make a vinaigrette. Squeeze some in a pot of beans.
If all else fails, juice freezes well. Freeze it in ice cube trays and use as needed.
I just read that the Southern Arizona food bank is asking for unused lemons and oranges from people’s trees… IIRC you live in AZ but I’m not sure where. ?
Preserves, sweetened juices, cooking. There’s also the orange blossoms, which probably smell pretty good.
Seeing as you apparently live in a tropical/subtropical climate and have the choice of other citrus that’s more edible, or ornamental/edible trees that don’t drop a lot of minimally usable fruit on the property, you can always cut down the offending trees and grow something you like better.
We had satsuma oranges when we lived in Texas. Small trees, bore large fruit crops, nicely scented flowers. They are fairly cold hardy too, at least into the mid-upper 20s.
Meyer lemons are all the rage right now; they’re a cross between an orange and a lemon. They’re like slightly less sweet, large, round lemons. Any recipes for them might work with your fruit. You could be sitting on the next big thing!
Juice them. Take equal volumes of orange juice, sugar, and the cheapest vodka you can buy, then mix them in a wine bottle and wait a month. Turn the bottle over daily so the sugar dissolves. Put one shot of the mixture in a beer before you drink the beer. Delicious!
I do this with limes regularly, and I suspect it would work well with your oranges.
