These oranges rarely turn orange on ripening and we can tell when they are mature when they become soft on the tree. I have newly planted about 30 Bibile Orange trees where the fruit is sweeter, and fetch a lot more in the market, but which I maintain does not have as much juice and makes fewer drinks per fruit.
There are a few more weeks to go before these oranges are ready to be plucked and available for sale. I scoured the destrict last week in search of these oranges, as it is time they were mature, but none of the oranges in all my known haunts were mature, and I suspect this season all the oranges will ripen at the same time leaving a huge glut but alas all too short of a season. So you my customers please preorder in 100s and squeeze and leave them in your freezer, so you can dilute and drink as and when necessary over time as long as 6 months.
The Orchard of 10 orange trees of the traditional variety, where fruiting is very erratic and the squeezed orange is the unquestionably the best for a vodka orange.
How long does a planted tree take to bear fruits?
ReplyDeleteis this ambul dodan? we had a tree at home once and lots of people used to want to take away fruits for all sorts of medicinal purposes...
ReplyDeletethe local dodang takes about 5 years to properly fruit, and the Bibile pani dodang which I recently planted is supposed to fruit in 2 years, as it is a budded variety, but I am not sure how populous the fruit will be.
ReplyDeleteThis is not ambul dodang which is used for medicinal purposes, they are a much larger sized fruit. I do not put more than a teaspoon of sugar when I drink a diluted glass of this orange, it is best chilled.
Of course this area also has plenty of ambul dodang trees and the fruit is available in season at a lower price to the above.
Thanks. Two years is quite good!
ReplyDeleteMust plant one at my place too :)
the trick to making frozen orange juice convenient is to purchase an ice tray and fill the tray with freshly squeezed orange juice. you then freeze the juice in ice cubes and when you are ready to have a cool glass of juice, get a glass of water and put in your orange juice ice cubes and presto! you have a delicious glass of cold OJ, fresh from the tree
ReplyDeletethis is mara cool - how do you keep your orchard disease free? we've given up planting citrus fruits in our garden because it very rarely moves past the fledgling stage..
ReplyDeletei think it is easier to grow citrus in the dry zone, and it is more difficult to grow citrus in the wet zone. I have 8 lime trees in the farm in the wet zone near Padukka but their yields are very low at present due to the lack of a long dry hot season that turns the flowers into fruit.
ReplyDeleteI hope this means we will be getting to sample the vodka-orange that you speak of at your next open house.
ReplyDeleteHaving a cocktail with some local fare will be a refreshing change from the imported wines that you have been serving.
Looking forward to tasting the drink!
it looks like tourists are coming to lanka in droves. i hope you can get your kumbuk pokuna lodge functional soon!
ReplyDeleteWhat still needs to be done to get it operational?
(that blog doesn't allow non-google comments, so i had to post here)
A Quote from Selected Journalism by H.A.J. Hulugalle (page 25) regarding the late W.A. de Silva:
ReplyDelete"Agriculture made him rich and agriculture ruined him financially when he turned from self-interest to the public interest. But it did not make him unhappy."
Please update soon!