Kitchen Garden Forum

In my youth, several decades ago, sevilles used to arrive in the markets towards the end of January.
Even ten years ago, it would be the third weekend of January that they were suddenly on the stalls.
This year I have already made four batches because there were Sevilles in Waitrose (my nearest supermarket, five minutes walk away) in the girst week of the new year.
Any ideas why this might be?
Faster transport? New varieties (they look much the same), just harvesting earlier, climate change?

Like lots of things that are available earlier and earlier. A recent example being items in shops for Christmas. Easter Eggs will appear soon no doubt. Market forces I guess,

Seville oranges are definitely earlier, as I have said on my social page elsewhere sadly I wont be making any this year, In fact still have some left from last year, my much loved marmalade on toast at breakfast is I regret no longer edible for me..

Actually maybe it is just retailers desperation to capture larger share of the available market

They start picking oranges in Spain in October by now all the picking will have been done at least a month ago

Easter eggs were delivered to our local Co-op on Christmas Eve.

Diane wrote:Easter eggs were delivered to our local Co-op on Christmas Eve.

quelle surprise

Robo
If the oranges are picked in late autumn, are the carts bring the oranges pulled by snails? Or is there a compulsory aging period?

Wife bought some good looking Sevilles from market stall for £1.50 Kg this morning.

I've just come back from Seville area of Spain and mile after mile of orange groves still had fruit on the trees. Word was that the prices that the growers were getting made harvesting them uneconomic.

I saw them for sale at €1.29 for five kilo at a farmers market.

Nuf said.

We used to make about 70 lbs of marmalade a year for local fundraising but last year made only enough for our own use because we are all "marmaladed out" and still have about 7 jars left which should see us through this year. I think good summers and autumns in Europe might mean the oranges ripen earlier and get over here earlier. I,ve noticed that sometimes the prices reduce as the season comes to an end but the keen marmalade makers probably buy theirs earlier just in case they run out.

In previous years we,ve bought some still thinking we had time to get more and sometimes find the supply of them seems to have dried up earlier than anticipated.

Pa, I,m sorry yiou can no longer enjoy your own marmalade on toast. That's hard as home made marmalade somehow always seem to taste better than shop bought, especially when yiu have the really tasty thick peel bits. Any chance you could still get the flavour of it by having it whizzed up in some soft semolina milk pudding? . Not quite the same as know, but a shame to miss out on it altogether.

when we are in spain we buy oranges in ten kilo bags usually one a week ,fresh orange juice first thing in the morning takes some beating ,trouble is I drink it all day

Primrose wrote:Pa, I,m sorry yiou can no longer enjoy your own marmalade on toast. That's hard as home made marmalade somehow always seem to taste better than shop bought, especially when yiu have the really tasty thick peel bits. Any chance you could still get the flavour of it by having it whizzed up in some soft semolina milk pudding? . Not quite the same as know, but a shame to miss out on it altogether.

Home made from fresh oranges does taste better, why people like my cousin use that tinned concentrate stuff I'll never understand.

I do mix in some marmalade with my porridge now and again.
Whilst I cannot eat croissant I can make one hell of a mess by spreading butter and marmalade on one and the sucking it back off, and I really do mean a mess.

Pa, eating and enjoying the texture of all the usual foods we eat is something we all take for granted so I,m sure we all feel for your current dilemma. I imagine smooth pates, mousses and humus dishes can rapidly lose their appeal after a while. Hopefully your taste buds are still intact.

Somebody once proudly gave me a jar of her "home made marmalade" from a tin, and I did a swap with a jar of our genuine home made from scratch just for us to do an interesting comparison. When she tried ours she admitted there was a far better flavour in the genuine home made version. But if you always use commercial stuff you would probably never know. I thought the tinned product bore no comparison to the home made but perhaps I was so used to ours that I was biased.