I got my box of seville oranges today from California from ripetoyou.com. This 6 pound box looks enough for 3 batches of marmalade.



I've been a marmalade lover since forever. That is one of the reasons for learning to bud citrus, to raise sour oranges. I raised a sour orange tree from seed and budded it with bearing sour orange wood. The tree is now full size but has been budded over to blood oranges, sanguinelli and tarocco, and midnight valencia orange.

These oranges are small, the size of satsumas. The sour oranges used here in Texas for rootstock are larger like a navel orange and much more sour than these. The Texas oranges are so sour that no amount of sugar can sweeten them. The marmalade I used to make was so sour I got tired of it and stopped making it. I then started to make marmalade with changshou kumquats which makes a very nice sweet marmalade.

I'm making the first batch of seville marmalade tonight. As usual I'll use added pectin rather than have to boil the fruit so long. I do this for a fresher taste.

I will also grow these out from seed. I don't see seville oranges in the california budwood varieties.

I'll report back when I taste the results. I'm excited to maybe finally get the real thing after a long search that started in 2000.

That are not Sevilla Oranges, but CHINOTTO.
A cross of Italian Sour Orange and a Mandarin.

In Italy it is a "cult" citrus and there are marmalades, soft drinks , icecream and even sweets made of it, but outside of Italy nobody would eat it ... LOL !!!

Hope you like the taste, but it is really BITTER ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus_myrtifolia

http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/chinotto.html

They are seville sour oranges. Think before you post.

I ALWAYS say nonsense and yes it IS smaller as mrtexas already stated.

It has also a smooth and not rough rind and typically a mandarine shape and apearence.

Besides all the the smell of the rind, the taste and the form of the leaves are mandarine like.

I wish I could taste those oranges! I liked the seville oranges I tasted fresh sofar, although I don't like marmelade...

The pic looks like "rough seville" var in Australia, not so common these days.

I dont think Chinotto is a mandarin hybrid ????

Sanguinello should be SEVILLEY reprimanded for misinformation if not correct

The marmalade is very nice with a hint of bitterness. It is sweet but tangy but not so overwhelmingly sour as that made from Texas sour orange rootstock fruit.

The changshou kumquat marmalade I have been making for several years with the same recipe is sweeter without the bitter overtones. I like both.

My recipe:
6 seville oranges
1 meyer lemon
4 pounds of sugar
10 cups of water
5 tablespoons of industrial pectin powder
1 tablespoon of butter to retard boilover
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

Juice fruit retaining seeds. Set aside juice and seeds overnight in the refrigerator. Slice peels and boil in water for 30 minutes until soft and retain overnight. The next morning force the juice and seeds thru a sieve. There will be a lot of jelled pectin produced. Heat the peels and water until boiling. Combine pectin and sugar and add to boiling peels. Boil until liquid cannot be stirred down, a couple minutes. Put in jars.

They are still shipping:
http://ripetoyou.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=84

mrtexas, the Fraser Seville Sour orange is available through the CCPP budwood program. I actually almost ordered it this season, as it would be my "namesake" fruit (that's my maiden name). Here is the description:

http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/frasers_seville.html

Here is the description, it sounds like a great Seville orange, and might possibly have traveled through Texas on its way to California, and the CCPP program:

Quote:

Source: Received as budwood by Robert Krueger and John Bash from Rio Farms, Monte Alto, TX, 1997. RRK: This accession was received in Texas in 1963, therefore it is possibly the same as 'Smooth Flat Seville' (CRC 4079), which was received by USDA Orlando as seed from Australia in 1963 from Lilian R. Fraser (formerly Chief Biologist of the B.C.R.1., Department of Agriculture, Rydalmere, N.S.W.) This may be a distant selection of the Smooth Flat Seville types 'best selection of Smooth Flat Seville' (HK Wutscher, 1997).

Or, maybe this is the same sour orange you're referring to that is just too sour? And, thanks for the marmalade recipe, have saved that to use for my Bergamot and my Bouquet de Fleurs oranges when I get some. And, maybe I'll order some Seville budwood next time.

The Fraser seville in the ucr pics looks the same as 'smooth flat seville', cant see anything to suggest any major differences.
That said, the NSW Dept Ag has a lot of 'sfs' selections in collections, from when they were
much more commonly grown on farms.

Both rough and smooth are used for jam production, however that has greatly declined now. Marmalade can now be made from imported concentrate,( same as OJ ) so growers cant easily sell fruit now.

Smooth is a grapefruit like tree, probably related to the pummelo/sour orange hybrid types of Japan and China
Rough seems to be a straight sour orange
( bergamot scented leaves, big petiole, very pointed spear head shaped leaves )

For the folks living in Houston area. I just found that Central market has these very fruits in stock. Stickers on them state "ripe for you.com", so they must be exactly what MrTexas bought. The store charges something about $1.69 per pound if I remember correctly. Guess, it is our turn to make marmalade!