AN UNDERRATED FRUIT FROM THE CITRUS FAMILY

We are used to valorising the mango as our ‘national fruit’, and rightly so, because of its all-India profile and many delicious varieties. People even fight about which ones are better.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

But this week, as winter begins to nip the North and its seasonal bounty starts showing up, I realise anew that we have another fruit that is surely God’s bounty to our land—the orange. Oranges are associated the world over with prosperity and happiness. The Roman goddess Juno apparently brought oranges as her dowry when she married the god Jupiter. And we all know that the colour orange is holy in Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

I discovered that in the South, the orange season lasts from October through March. In the north, it’s from December to February, while Central and Western India’s orange season is from November through January and again, from March through May.

The mandarin orange is apparently the most grown among citrus fruits in India. It occupies over 40 percent of the total area under citrus cultivation here. The most important commercial citrus species in India are the mandarin (Citrus reticulata), sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) and acid lime (Citrus aurantifolia) sharing 41, 23 and 23 percent respectively.

It seems oranges are grown mostly in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Orissa, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. The Nagpur mandarin is rated as one of the best in the world and if you want to grow some, you could probably try sourcing it from the Central Citrus Research Institute, Amravati Road, Nagpur.