CELEBRATE CITRUS ON THE FARM AT IL FIORELLO

The month of January is a celebration of citrus on our Farm. The cooking class, the tasting plates, and the kitchen is filled with citrus. On our organic farm we have lots of olives, 3000 or more, but we also have 50 citrus trees. There are 16 different varieties. Our goal is to produce enough organic citrus to make our co-milled lemon oils from our own Farm. A bonus is that we get to eat and drink a lot of citrus. So healthy in this cold weather.

The Farm at IL Fiorello is always expanding and the additional citrus is growing and very healthy. Nick and Abel also plated 30 fig trees—a true gift. We will have a lot of figs, and 5 different varieties available in the fall. Look forward to September and our class on figs. Think figs and prosciutto pizza.

The January cooking class highlights not only our citrus co-milled olive oils but on fresh citrus from the Farm. The lemon tart is beyond delicious, but my favorite is the seafood sausage with a mousseline sauce. The candied citrus is quite nice for a treat in the afternoon.

The tasting plates at IL Fiorello follow the seasons on our Farm. This month we feature a Citrus Salad with pistachios and Mission Olive Oil, Lemon and Chicken broth soup with Taggiasca oil, an Olive Oil citrus cake with our co-milled Lemon Oil and to top things off, a palate cleanser of Pomegranate Juice with our Winter Fruit Balsamic Vinegar Reduction (made from our pomegranates and our oranges).

Get more citrus into your diet. Oranges and lemons have an incredible amount of flavor and antioxidants that are beneficial to good health. What is not to love about that? The American Heart Association states that citrus has vitamin A, fiber, potassium, folate, and is heart healthy. Whole fruits are much better than juiced fruits and vegetables.

Making Co-Milled Olive Oils is great fun, a lot of hard work, and very rewarding. The Extra Virgin Olive Oils come first, then we make the co-milled oils. Each year we harvest olives. Order citrus and go to work. The difficulty is making sure that the olives are not frozen, due to frost, and the citrus is ripe. It can be a dicey issue. Each fruit is cut and added to the olives in different proportions each year. You taste the olives you taste the citrus and you make the decision about percentages on the spot. We have been doing this long enough to know how to make it taste great. Our Kaffir Lime won best of Show and Best of Class in both Los Angeles and State competitions. The Eureka Lemon is a favorite in the tasting room.

Enjoy good health. Enjoy the bounty of Citrus.

Ciao, Ann


Citrus dessert Recipe

When you are in a hurry and you need something really great !

A good healthy scoop of Lemon or Orange Gelato or Sorbet

A cup of Mandarin segments

A dash of Winter Fruit Balsamic Vinegar Reduction

A very little (or a lot) of Chocolate shavings

A large spoon and a quiet spot to enjoy deliciousness

 


THE CITRUS FRUITS OF IL FIORELLO

 

Valencia Oranges
Navel Oranges
Bouquet de Fleurs
Seville Sour Oranges
Eureka Lemons
Variegated Lemons
Meyer Lemons
Genoa Lemons
Santa Teresa lemons
Oro Blanco Grapefruit
Pink Grapefruit
Pomelo
Kumquat
Calamancoes
Rangpur Limes
Fingerling Limes
Buddha’s Hand

AND THEN YOU EAT THEM ALL TOGETHER