Why can green mandarins be ripe?

Ruth explains why mandarins can be ripe even when they are green.

Some of our customers are surprised by the green colour of our first mandarins. We would therefore like to explain the difference between this fruit and the fruit you find in a conventional greengrocer’s.

The varieties Clemenrubí and Oronules are early clementines whose skin is still partly green even when they have reached the ideal point of ripeness for eating. Their skin only turns orange all over once they are already quite ripe, and by then they no longer keep for as long. In conventional trade, fruit is usually treated after harvesting with ethylene gas and artificial temperature changes to give mandarins and oranges their typical orange skin. This process is called “degreening”.

Our produce, by contrast, undergoes no treatment at all after harvesting. It is fruit that ripens on the tree and is picked at the moment it has reached the best degree of ripeness. The partly green colour may seem strange to you, but the mandarins are ripe nonetheless and taste excellent, precisely because they have not been treated.

The freshly squeezed juice is excellent too. You can buy the fruit here: You will find more information in the following articles:

• PLANET WISSEN: Growing and trade – from the tree to the shop (German)
• BOTANIK GUIDE: Aha! That is why green oranges can be ripe too (German)
• SPEKTRUM.DE: Oranges are green, not orange (German)

See you soon!

We would like to point you to direct shipping from Ruth Palomero’s orange plantation in València. There you can order oranges and mandarins directly from the farmer to your home, without any middlemen. It (almost) doesn’t get any fresher or more convenient. We gain nothing financially from orders. We are simply happy to recommend it.

RUTH’S HOMEPAGE (German)