{"id":20001,"date":"2025-12-23T23:54:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T22:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/?p=20001"},"modified":"2025-12-23T23:57:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T22:57:20","slug":"satsuma-oranges-and-lemons-in-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/en\/satsuma-oranges-and-lemons-in-december\/","title":{"rendered":"Satsuma, oranges and lemons in December"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A tour of the citrus orchard.
In December, many varieties begin to ripen. <\/p>\n\n


<\/p>\n\n

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It has already frozen<\/strong><\/strong> several times, not very hard, at around -2C. <\/strong>
That’s enough to turn the Satsuma mandarins orange. <\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
The zests were still green a month ago. The repeated cold destroyed the chlorophyll and colored the fruit. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
Two varieties of Satsuma mandarin: Iwasaki on the left, Owari on the right.
The fruits are similar in size, but the Iwasaki becomes sweet sooner.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
Navelina orange trees planted in 2023 (3 years of growth) are starting to produce a little.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
Some branches are too full. So we start picking a few. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
A 220-gram Navelina orange, picked while still hard to the touch.
On December 23, it is already ripe and juicy, but it can still remain on the branch and ripen further. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
A younger Fragola orange tree, planted in 2024 (two years of growth in the ground).
The fruits are smaller, but the tree probably bears a few too many for its age and size. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
One Fragola orange, 140 grams. If you choose the softer ones around December 15, they’ll already be quite sweet, but with a pleasant acidity. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
Enzo’s pomelos have turned yellow.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
This will be the first harvest of Enzo pomelos (tree planted in 2023, 3 years of growth).
But it’s far too early – we’ll have to wait until next spring to try them out. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
Kumquats are very productive. With no frost below -3\/-4C, they bear fruit all winter long.
The jam is excellent, you just need time to prepare it: removing the seeds is a very long and painstaking job. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
The Meyer lemons have grown in size, some weighing 200 grams, and are slowly turning from yellow to light orange. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
At the end of December, there are some large, ripe lemons and a number of small lemons that came out in autumn. They’ll grow and ripen in spring, if it doesn’t freeze too hard this winter. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
A different lemon tree, producing for the first time this year.
It’s a Citradia, planted in 2023 (3 years of growth). <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
The fruits have a distinctive rind and are ripe by the end of December.
Citradia is one of the most frost-resistant lemon trees (-13C). <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
A kilo and a half of fruit, just enough to make our first Citradia jam. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
Citradia lemons are small (100 to 120 grams), with acidic, aromatic pulp. The zest is very interesting, with its distinctive fragrance.
Citradia jam has a very intense lemon flavor. It is made with the whole fruit, removing the bitterness from the zest (see our article on Sudachi jam). <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
And finally a Hana Yuzu with small fruits. <\/strong>
In December, it is late, so harvesting takes place in November. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tour of the citrus orchard. In December, many varieties begin to ripen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3213,"featured_media":20000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20001"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20024,"href":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20001\/revisions\/20024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpagrumi.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}