By Michelle Beck

It’s citrus season, and I am always pained by the amount of ripe citrus I see hanging on trees, unpicked and left to rot. One of the best things about living in Bakersfield is the amount and variety of citrus people grow in their back yards. I hate to see it wasted. Years ago, I helped an elderly neighbor of my grandma’s by climbing high on a ladder and picking figs from her very tall tree. She kept what she wanted, and my grandmother and I took many home. I would love to see some sort of urban fruit harvesting program, like the Portland Fruit Tree Project, to make sure our beautiful local fruit doesn’t go to waste.

Golden Empire Gleaners accepts fresh fruits and vegetable donations at 1326 30^th St., Bakersfield, between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call 324-2767 or visit www.goldenempiregleaners.com for more information.

If you are lucky enough to have citrus, don’t pick it the moment it turns color – letting it ripen on the tree increases the sweetness and the fruit will not rot until the weather turns hot. Some varieties of Valencia oranges don’t ripen until the spring!

If you would like to plant citrus, the time to plant is the spring. White Forest Nursery usually hosts a tasting in the spring with citrus growers where the public can sample many different varieties of the fruit.

If you would like to buy local citrus, the Farmers’ Market (8 a.m. to noon Saturdays at Golden State Mall, 3201 F St.) always has several vendors, and Johnston Farms has a small store in their grove. You can also order online from Johnston Farms and send citrus to friends and relatives not lucky enough to live in citrus country.

Oranges

Many people love the navel orange for its large size, thick skin and easy peeling. But my favorite orange is the Valencia because it is so sweet and juicy. Valencias are thinner-skinned and harder to peel, but they make delicious juice and flavorful marmalade.

If you’ve never tried a blood orange, I encourage you to do so. Tesch Farms at the Farmers’ Market always has several varieties. Blood oranges, so called because of their red flesh, have a somewhat fruit-punch-like flavor. Some blood oranges are very dark red inside, while some are orange with streaks of red. Some have reddish skin, and some look like regular oranges until you slice them. They used to be a bit of a gourmet food, but have become more readily available in the last several years. In fact, someone told me a story once of tenants at a rental property who threw away all of the fruit on the blood orange tree, because when they sliced them open and saw the burgundy flesh, they thought the fruit had gone bad.

For peeling, this citrus peeling tool is inexpensive and very helpful. I have both the Pampered Chef and Tupperware models, and prefer the peeler from Pampered Chef.

For zesting citrus, this microplane grater is great. The zest is the colored part of the rind. Do not grate the white part (the pith) because it is bitter.

Oranges are a great addition to many foods. Smith’s Bakery makes incredible orange muffins. (Can we all say it together? Mmmm … Smith’s.) It is very easy to adapt the cream scone recipe from this column to make orange scones. Simply add a teaspoon or so of orange peel to the batter. Once the scones cool, top them with a glaze of orange juice and powdered sugar. Just add the orange juice to the powdered sugar a tablespoon or so at a time, stirring well between each addition. A little goes a very long way.

I like orange marmalade and it is very easy to make. The instructions are inside the box of pectin. I use Sure-Jel in the pink box. If you make marmalade, this citrus zester/scorer is a better choice of tool because it removes the zest in long, thin strips. These zest strips are also pretty in cocktails.

The excellent cookbook “Gluten-Free Baking Classics” also has a great recipe for orange juice bread.

Mandarin oranges and tangerines

These smaller orange fruits make great portable snacks. Depending on the variety, they are easy or hard to peel, seedless or not, and tart or sweet. I like tangerine juice as well.

Tangelos

A tangelo is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit or pummelo (see below for more on these). It looks like an orange with a bump on top. Tangelos are also great for snacking and juicing and are easy to peel.

Lemons

Lemons are very productive trees and grow well here. Eureka and Lisbon are the varieties most commonly seen in Bakersfield, but some people grow Meyer lemons, which are a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. Meyer lemons have thinner skin and sweeter fruit.

During lemon season, I juice many lemons and freeze the juice either in ice cube trays (popping out the cubes and storing them in a freezer bag) or in one-cup portions for lemonade. I also zest several lemons and freeze the zest for use in recipes.

Lemonade is very easy to make, and is always welcome during our hot summer. To make lemonade, combine one cup of lemon juice, one cup of sugar (less, if you prefer) and five cups of water.

I love lemons, and a list of delicious lemon recipes could take up a whole column. I am including a few favorites below, but I am always looking for more good lemon recipes, so please link to your favorites in the comment area below.

Lemon bars are one of my all-time favorite cookies. I like them tart, with a thin crust and lots of lemon filling. To make them gluten-free, you can substitute your favorite GF flour and a teaspoon or so of xanthan gum. “Gluten-Free Baking Classics” also has a lemon bar recipe. I usually use the crust part of that recipe and my favorite lemon bar recipe for the filling.

This baked lemon custard from the author Margaret Attwood is tart with a cakey layer on top and the custard, which is more like lemon curd, on bottom. It uses very little flour, so I substituted with my GF flour blend with no problem.

My Noni frequently made this lemon poke cake and it is a standard at any gathering with my cousins.

For those of you who are somehow immune to sweets, here is a recipe for lemon vinaigrette.

Grapefruit

Grapefruit comes in white, pink and ruby red. I like all three kinds, in case you have a tree and find yourself with extras. It is delicious cut in half, sectioned and eaten raw, or sprinkled with sugar and broiled.

It is easier to section grapefruits with a grapefruit knife. A few years ago, I bought some grapefruit spoons similar to these, and they are very easy to use.

Fresh grapefruit juice is also delicious in cocktails, such as the greyhound or the salty dog.

Pummelos

Pummelos look like gigantic grapefruit. They have either a green or yellow rind. They taste a little sweeter than grapefruit and can be eaten the same way. Cocktail grapefruits are a cross between a pummelo and a mandarin orange. They look like an orange, only with smoother, gold skin. They tend to have many seeds, but they are very sweet.

Kumquats

Kumquats look like tiny, oval oranges. Kumquats are eaten whole, and, oddly enough, the peel is the sweet part of the fruit. My neighbor was kind enough to share some with me a few years ago, and I made this delicious kumquat-nut bread. For more information on kumquats, check out this website.

Limes grow very well here, but ripen in the summertime. I have a prolific tree, so they will be the subject of a future column.