Oh, my darling Clementine! Whether we buy clementines from our local farmer's market or by the boxful at Trader Joe's the consensus is the same: Y-U-M-M-Y. These little orange fruits start showing up when the weather gets cold and stay with us into the new year.
Seasonal Spotlight: Clementines
Clementines are an accidental hybrid of a mandarin variety and there is debate over whether they were discovered in Algeria or in China. Their skins are easy to peel like tangerines, but unlike tangerines, clementines are sweet. Their small size, seedless quality, easy-peel skins, and delicious taste make them an ideal snack fruit for adults and kids alike. Clementines don't last long at our house - we go through them like banshees!
I first had clementines in the winter of 1990, when I went to France for the whole month of December. Each French house I visited had plates and bowls of clementines piled up, and I ate many of them at any opportunity. My enthusiasm for them prompted my friend's father to chuckle and ask, "Don't you have these in the United States?" Well, kind of, but I never saw them.
Florida oranges dominated the US citrus market at that time. Clementines were mainly grown in Spain and North Africa. They were introduced to California in 1909, but a viable market for them wasn't really created in the US until 1997 when a freak cold weather front destroyed the orange crops in Florida. This drove up prices of citrus, but the plentiful clementines stayed cheap.
After people discovered the wonderful qualities of clementines, they took off from there.
Apart from eating them as a delicious snack, here are some other things you can do with clementines:
• Several recipes for clementines
• Dutch Baby with Warm Clementine Sauce
• Nigella Lawson's Clementine Cake
• Clementine Jicama Salad
• Chocolate Tart with Candied Clementine Peel
Related: Take Two Deals and Make Clementine Cake
(Image: Kathryn Hill)
Comments (6)
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I love clementines. So does my two-year-old son. He would eat six clementines a day if I let him. We are halfway through our first box of the season and expect to be heading back for Box #2 this weekend at the latest.
view Daffodil's profile
Hey I remember that!
We do love clementines at home.
In my family, "clémentines" are also used for pranks. You tell your neighbor at dinner table "HMMM, this clementine smells SOOO good, wanna smell it?" and when the person's face gets nearer, you squeeze the skin so that some juice from the zest sprays into their face. Ok it stings the eyes a tiny bit, but it's not harmful (not that I'm aware!), and it's a good guaranteed giggle!
:-)
sophie
view sophersonic's profile
I also love clementines! they are one of my favorite things about winter and holiday foods. I started on my second box a couple of days ago.
my mom is on holiday in spain right now (the joys of being retired) and she said that she keeps driving by fields or groves of clementines. I was a little jealous of her vacation but hearing that was just too much for me.
I think I am going to go eat another one right now...
view lcg's profile
i adore clementines.
sadly, i have a wicked canker sore, as we speak, from the 3-clementines-a-day habit i've developed over the past two weeks. :\
view abigailbelle's profile
I eat about five of these suckers every day! Loves 'em. My 17-month-old baby boy does too. For every two slices he eats, I eat the rest. So easy to peel too. I think I am going to decorate a bunch of these with cloves and put them out in a bowl in the kitchen -- liven things up a bit!
view mamaspank's profile
I'm not a big fan of oranges or tangerines but I love clementines. I wish I could find them year-round.
view Cheryl K's profile