A recent WDDTY e-news bulletin reported on research into the potential benefits of tangerines and the possibility that they will be marketed as a new power fruit.  It reminded us that the first two plantings in our then rather bare and embryonic garden in Spain were a lemon and tangerine tree.

A Lunar lemon tree was sought out, which was not that easy in the 1980s as there were few garden centres.  It flowers and fruits all year round, and so we always have ripening lemons to harvest for cooling drinks in the summer and warming ones for the winter. 

The tangerine tree was selected from the various early, mid-season and late season types of mandarin crosses because it would be ready to harvest for Christmas, it was not as acidic as many other varieties and, having thin skins, the tangerines are easy to peel or eat whole from November to January when frosts can damage them.

We dry slices to add to other home dried fruit snacks we eat when walking the Spanish mountain ranges. Some were in the mix *** took on a 150 km walk last week to give energy to his 74-year-old body.

We also juice some to freeze. One thing we notice about juice frozen in small plastic beakers is that the surface of the ice is always covered with a layer of tangerine oil, which has an especially delicious taste if spooned off before the juice melts – we suspect that this is high in some of the more beneficial constituents of the fruit.

Long ago, we were told that the pith of tangerines and other citrus fruits have cancer-fighting properties. Now that the tangerine may soon be seen as a power fruit, we hope we will start seeing more tangerine trees for sale.

Clodagh and Richard Handscombe. Holistic gardeners in Spain for 25years. Authors of a number of books on gardening in Spain.

www.gardeninginspain.com.