Oranges Amer

The wheelbarrow full of oranges shows a fraction of those that we harvested when we were visiting friends in Bar Sur Loup. They are bitter oranges, what the French call oranges amer and the Brits call Seville oranges. They are throughout the region because they are essential for the perfume industry which thrives in that region. In fact there is a large perfume factory located in Bar sur Loup. They are also the foundation for marmalade and for vin d'orange which is an aperatif wine. Most of the oranges we harvested were donated to the town to decorate for the annual orange festival. We bought back a box for culinery purposes.

We made 2 different recipies of marmalade. The first came from David Lebovitz's website and is delicious. We had a difficult time getting it to the proper consistancy for marmalade. It boiled on the stove for hours. We were not alone, comments on his blog indicated others found they had added too much water initially. The second recipie came from the preserving classic Stocking Up and used honey for the sweetner. Also very good.

The vin d'orange will take a couple of months to make. It uses the peel from bitter and sweet oranges, lemon peel, vanilla, cloves, very high octane alcohol, sugar, and rose wine. We had a taste in Bar sur Loup and enjoyed it very much. So our take from the oranges included about 15 jars of marmalade, a gallon of vin d'orange, and we still had enough oranges to give to friends.