Saturdays in Spain

When I arrived in Seville, Spain at the end of January, los árboles de naranjo (orange trees) were littered with brightly colored oranges on their branches. However, these were not “Florida oranges,” as in you would never eat them as they were. These were Seville oranges, a particularly tart orange which is now grown throughout the Mediterranean but whose origins began in Seville. They are considered ideal for making marmalade as they are higher in pectin than the sweet orange (aka the Florida orange) and so it not only gives it a better set but also a higher yield. A professor explained to one of my classes that once a year oranges of this variety are collected from trees throughout Seville and shipped to Britain to be used in marmalade (and you know how the Brits love their marmalade).  I never bought any which I sorely regret but I remember seeing “Seville Orange Marmalade” in my local supermarket one time. Years later and I’ve never seen it again.

While these orange trees were stunning to photograph once the oranges fell off and were run over by cars and horses and stepped on by people, well their smell was abysmal. Nasty abysmal.