{"id":24532,"date":"2021-07-01T01:10:30","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T05:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/?p=24532"},"modified":"2021-06-25T12:25:24","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T16:25:24","slug":"notes-from-the-apothecary-70","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2021\/07\/01\/notes-from-the-apothecary-70\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes from the Apothecary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notes from the Apothecary: The Orange<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

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Oranges: juicy, bright globes filled with vitamin C and sunshine. The orange is a citrus fruit that\u2019s one of the most cultivated fruits in the world, and may have been cultivated by humans for around 2,500 years. The sweet orange as we know it today is a hybrid of mandarins and pomelos, and is very different from bitter oranges, the likes of which often line the streets of towns in Mediterranean countries. I once made the mistake of plucking and peeling a juicy looking orange while in Spain, only to have my mouth shrivelled by the intense bitterness! Sweet oranges, in comparison, are eaten worldwide for their flesh and juice – and their immune-system boosting vitamins.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Kitchen Garden<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

Growing your own oranges may be possible if you have the right climate, which is sunny and not too cool. If you live in a climate prone to frost or a lack of sunshine (like I do!) then you may be able to manage with indoor plants or a greenhouse. I\u2019ve currently got two citrus plants growing on a sunny windowsill. I did have a baby orange tree, but I didn\u2019t water it enough and it died, so learn from my mistake! Lots of sun and lots of water, but don\u2019t let it stay sodden so that mould or fungus can grow on the soil. I\u2019m considering trying to grow one from an orange pip next time we get fruits from the market, so I\u2019ll report back on how that goes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Orange blossom is one of my favourite scents, and even if you don\u2019t grow oranges, you can often get products fragranced with orange blossom. You can even get culinary orange blossom oil, to add floral-orange notes to cakes, biscuits, cookies, and icing. In our garden, we have inherited a sweet mock orange (pictured), which has a fragrance so close to true orange that it\u2019s incredible. However, it doesn\u2019t boast the sweet fruits that the real orange tree does.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One of our favourite things to do with a big bag of oranges, as we sometimes get from our local food waste initiative, is to make a batch of marmalade<\/a>. This sticky, orange jam is a big hit with everyone in our house.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Apothecary<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s well known that oranges are a fabulous source of vitamin C. Interestingly, despite their good rep, oranges are not the fruit highest in vitamin C. The Kakadu plum<\/a> has that honour, and other fruits like the guava and strawberries have more vitamins C per gram of fruit than oranges. The other drawback to filling up on oranges is that they contain so much sugar that they aren\u2019t always considered conventionally \u201chealthy\u201d. If you\u2019re going to use orange for your daily vitamin C boost, it\u2019s best to eat the fruit rather than chugging a litre of orange juice, as the high fibre content of the fruit\u2019s flesh is missing from even the freshest juice.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Eating oranges and other vitamin C-rich foods stop the breakdown of tissues, which used to be known as scurvy<\/a> and was, for many years, the scourge of sailors on long voyages. Extended periods without vitamin C leads to sores, bleeding, brittle bones, and eventually death. Unlike many animals, humans can\u2019t produce vitamin C<\/a>, which may be due to our ancestors genetically \u201cforgetting\u201d how to due to being primates that regularly fed on exotic fruits.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Witch\u2019s Kitchen<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

The orange originated in the east and the first written records mentioning cultivated oranges are from China around 300 BCE. Oranges may not have reached Europe until the 10th<\/sup> century CE, and Spanish colonists brought the fruit to America, probably in the 15th<\/sup> century. That means most western folklore around the orange is relatively modern, however that certainly doesn\u2019t make it any less compelling or powerful. Oranges may be associated with:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n