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DECEMBER 9: Clementines, Easy peelers by any another name

by Bruce McMichael

THE LEMON GROVE CHRISTMAS ADVENT CALENDAR 🎄 December 9

close up of fruits in bowl

Up and down Christmas season fruit and vegetable aisles of British supermarkets you’ll see smallish cardboard boxes and orange coloured nets full of ‘Easy Peelers’, a marketing term that frustrates those with a hand scrawled shopping list filled with words such as tangerines, mandarins, and clementine.

Most Easy Peelers are in fact clementines ( Citrus Clementina), the fruit you might perhaps find at the bottom of your Christmas stockings. 

Tangerines and clementines

It’s sister fruit, the tangerine, are slightly larger and have a brighter colouring, and smoother, shinier skin. With thinner skin, Clementines are easier to peel than tangerines. They have a flatter area on the top and bottom areas.

wood dawn sugar breakfast
Clementines are packed with fresh, ctirus flavours – great for cakes and pies Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Clementines are more cold tolerant than larger orange varieties, and are likewise available from November through April having grown in countries and regions such as China, Spain, Morocco and California.

Clementines are great in smoothies, gin, cakes, trifles, and muffins.

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orange fruits on white and blue floral ceramic plate
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Bruce McMichael

Food writing, discovering food stories, meeting producers, chefs and food enthusiasts are all part of desire to inspire, inform my readers and fellow food lovers. I am a freelance writer, journalist and published author focusing on the international world of food and drink, culture and travel. In 2019 I graduated from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy with a Masters in Food Culture, Communication and Marketing. I am now a visiting Professor at the university teaching Food & Drink Writing. Based in London I travel widely, particularly across western Europe. I have chaired many conferences and meetings, spoken at conferences and events and often appear on radio and TV talking most about food, the business of food and being an entrepreneur. In 2017 I won an episode of the ITV (the UK-based national television channel) cooking competition show, 'Gordon Ramsay's Culinary Genius'. I took my children on holiday to Sicily with the prize money. As an experienced farmers' market manager and operator of a small marmalade/ preserves company, I am very familiar with the issues surrounding local food, farming, enterprise and the environment.

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