Best orange varieties for backyards

Valencia: the seedless ‘Valencia’ orange is the best orange variety for most areas of Australia. It has few or no seeds. It is a fast-growing, hardy tree. The fruit ripen early (mid-September), but hold well on the tree for many months, making it a sweeter fruit than most other oranges in cooler areas. The fruit juice does not go off and turn sour in the refrigerator like ‘Navel’ juice does. This is why almost all of the world’s orange juice production is from ‘Valencia’ oranges. Ordinary ‘Valencia’ oranges are excellent to eat as well. All Valencias grow about 4m tall. Navels grow 3-4m tall.

Washington Navel: this variety produces its superbly sweet fruit in early winter. To eat the fruit off the tree, this is the best orange of all. But:
• It is a hard variety to grow well, catching every disease around
• The fruit juice deteriorates rapidly
• It usually produces less fruit than ‘Valencia’ trees.

Try new multi-graft ‘Splitzers’: from November this year onwards, new double-grafted citrus called ‘Splitzers’ will be on sale in Melbourne and Sydney. These will be very high quality citrus matched in pairs for vigour. So, in the one plant you will get:
• ‘Washington Navel’ orange and ‘Meyer’ lemon
• ‘Washington Navel’ orange and ‘Tahiti’ lime
• ‘Meyer’ lemon and ‘Tahiti’ lime
These double-grafted citrus are excellent space-savers in small gardens.

Or try dwarf orange trees: there are now dwarf citrus trees available which are ideal for pot culture or small gardens. These are exactly the same as the big ones, only they grow to about half the size. They are identical because they are the big ones grafted onto a special dwarfing understock called ‘Flying Dragon’. This ‘Flying Dragon’ understock has its best effect on oranges, but all citrus are good on it. The orange varieties available are ‘Valencia’ and ‘Navel’

For more on the best backyard citrus varieties, click here

Oranges in Ginger Syrup

Serves 6

6 Navel oranges
1 cup water
1 cup caster sugar
3 tablespoons very finely chopped ginger
thick cream, for serving

1. Without peeling the oranges, use a sharp knife to cut them across into rounds about 1cm thick. Then use a sharp vegie knife to trim away the rind from the oranges, leaving neat circles of orange flesh.

2. Put the water and caster sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil. When the sugar has dissolved after a minute or two, take the pan off the heat and add the ginger. Leave the syrup to cool for at least an hour.

3. When the syrup has cooled, pour it through a strainer onto the oranges (discard the ginger from the strainer). Cover and refrigerate for a few hours, preferably overnight. Serve the oranges drizzled with syrup, plus a dollop of thick cream.

Copyright CTC Productions 2008