Sure, I love the beautiful, peaceful aftermath of a snowstorm, with the pure white fluffy stuff piled high like so much Marshmallow Fluff. But other than that, I can leave behind in a heartbeat the cold, the gray, and the icy.
On the other hand, one thing that we do get in winter that isn’t so great in summer is citrus fruit. I love a good orange and would travel the country to find a kumquat—even going so far as to buy a tree of my own (long story for another time, but it turned out it wasn’t a kumquat).
However. This week—in May!—I saw a bag of “raspberry oranges” in the grocery store and just had to try them. I learned that they are an inspired hybrid between the Pomelo and the Tangerine. Smallish oval fruits, their insides are a deep red.
Although they’re not overly sweet (and I like a sweet orange), they actually have a taste of raspberry in them. Wow.
But what makes the flesh so red? Well, raspberry oranges are simply the result of a natural mutation of the standard orange that led to the production of anthocyanins, the water-soluble flavonoids that make blueberries blue and blood oranges red.
So, then I wondered what was the difference between a raspberry orange and a blood orange? After all, both have deep red flesh.
It’s just marketing. Maybe producers, or their advertising managers, finally came around to understanding that the name “blood orange” sounds just plain creepy. (And this from somebody who writes mysteries.)
Any way you slice them—or call them— these fruits are delicious.
I love citrus. Actually crave it. This am I drank Blood Orange juice. But I do agree. The name is seriously creepy. One of my grandchildren actually thought there was blood in the bottle.
I vote for a change of name so that my grandson will no longer think I am a vampire.]
Lorrin Krouss