in season -- satsumas

In my attempt to figure it out, I talked first with the folks at Sunkist Growers, a cooperative of citrus farmers in California and Arizona.

Sunkist markets eight different varieties of Citrus reticulata. The season starts in October with satsumas and ‘Fairchild’ tangerines and ends with the ‘Pixie’ tangerines that show up in March and may be available into June. In between, other varieties of clementines, tangerines and mandarins make their appearance.

Sunkist’s Claire Smith sent me a chart that shows that satsumas and clementines are varieties of mandarin oranges. Unlike most tangerines, both satsumas and clementines are generally seedless. Satsumas and clementines are flat and round, with easy-to-peel skins and segments that separate easily. Sunkist is working to develop even sweeter varieties like ‘Pixie’ and ‘Gold Nugget’, which come to market at the end of the season. Their “Flavor Wheel”, available at www.sunkist.com/products/flavor_wheel.aspx, is a great way to visualize the relative sweetness of citrus varieties.

Then I talked with Peter Chaires of the Florida Citrus Packers. He’s responsible for developing new citrus varieties. He told me there are lots of breeding programs going on to develop new varieties of Citrus reticulata. “Consumer demand for these easy peelers is driving this. It’s really nice that there’s a real interest in the new and interesting things we’re finding out in our fields,” he said.

Citrus fruits are especially interesting in that they’re so easy to hybridize. Think of the tangelo, a cross between a mandarin orange and a pomelo or grapefruit.

“The ‘Dancy’ tangerine was the old original Florida tangerine. Since then, crosses with the Dancy have produced hybrids that resulted in fruit that looked, peeled and tasted like a tangerine. I tend to group them together as tangerine-mandarin hybrids. The complexity of the crosses is beyond being able to explain to most people,” Chaires said.

I’m not sure I walked away any more knowledgeable about the difference between all these fruits, but I did see that the wide variety means we can look forward to enjoying these little fruits for many more weeks to come.

If you buy more than you can consume in a week or so, your best bet is to refrigerate the fruit. Stored at room temperature, all citrus will eventually dry out making even the “easy peelers” more difficult to peel.

A note for Atlanta-area gardeners: we can actually do pretty well with satsumas in containers here since they flower and produce fruit before our average first frost. Just be sure to move the plant to a protected spot when cold temperatures finally arrive.

At local farmers markets

For sale

Vegetables: arugula, Asian greens, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, chard, collards, dandelion, endive, escarole, herbs, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, mache, mushrooms, onions, peppers, radishes, rutabagas, spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, turnips

From local reports

Satsuma Mojito

Hands on: 5 minutes

Total time: 5 minutes

Serves: 1

Make this mojitos with any member of this family of fruit. Muddling is the key to this cocktail, releasing the oils from the citrus skins as well as the juice. Muddling means mashing the ingredients together with a “muddler”, available at many liquor stores. No muddler? Use the wide end of a wooden spoon. To make simple syrup, combine 1 cup water with 2 cups granulated sugar in a 2-cup glass measuring cup. Heat in microwave on high power for 4 minutes. Carefully remove cup from microwave, stir to make sure all sugar is dissolved and allow mixture to cool. Simple syrup will keep indefinitely in the refrigerator and is perfect for sweetening all manner of drinks from iced tea to cocktails.

1 satsuma, quartered

1/2 lime, cut in 2 pieces

2 mint sprigs, plus more for garnish

1 jigger gold rum

1 tablespoon simple syrup

Crushed ice

Club soda

Place the satsuma, lime, 2 mint sprigs, rum and simple syrup in a glass. Muddle until the mint and fruit are broken up. Strain into a small glass filled with crushed ice, and top with club soda. Garnish with a sprig of mint.

Adapted by a recipe from Donald Link of Cochon restaurant in New Orleans.

Per serving: 157 calories (percent of calories from fat, 2), 1 gram protein, 17 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, trace fat (trace saturated fat), no cholesterol, 3 milligrams sodium.