The Time is ‘Ripe’ for Citrus!!

 

Citrus fruits are known for their vivid color, sweet juice (or sour juice-we can’t forget to include you too, lemons!), and bright aroma. Summer is an excellent time of year to purchase citrus fruits as they are at their peak nutritionally. You have probably noticed the bright orange and yellows popping out of our produce sets as well, just beautiful. Make sure you check out our Eat Well You Tube Channel for recipe ideas using navel oranges and lemons.

Chile is a long, narrow country on the western seaboard of South America.  The Chilean Fresh Fruit Exporters Association (ASOEX) is responsible for exporting 96% of all fruits exported all over the world form Chile. These little fruits traveled alll that way from Chile to you! Chile is so proud of the quality of their fruits and they attribute it all to their unique geography, climate, and fertile land that makes excellent agricultural conditions year-round.

Now let’s discuss the nutritional value, since that is really important to all of us. Citrus is well known for its vitamin C content (160% of your daily needs is pretty impressive), but did you know that you can also get vitamin A, calcium, and even some iron from citrus? I just learned today that there was iron in citrus and I am even more impressed with these little fruits. It is so easy to fit citrus fruits into your day. Nature has designed them to have an easy outer peel and easy peel sections for snacking anywhere.  You can eat them raw and use them during cooking and baking. The zest and juice will add some zip to your dishes and your drinks!

Here are a couple of our favorite recipes that use beautiful fruits from Chile!

This is a delicious Spinach Salad with Chilean Clementines, Blueberries, Avocado drizzled with an Orange Vinaigrette! We love this dressing and you will too! CLICK ME FOR THIS ORANGE DRESSING!

As you figured out by now Eat Well is all about the Taco’s! This Citrus Salsa really up’s the game on any taco combo you can think of!  Here is the link to get this reicipe! —-> CLICK ME FOR DELICOUS CITRUS SALSA!

 

This is a delicious Fresh Chilean Blueberry and Lemon Sorbet. So refreshing! Link to Recipe —> CLICK ME FOR YUMMY SORBET!

When looking for recipe inspo browse through their website. (CLICK ME TO GO!) You can learn what other types of produce they grow, because they do WAY more than citrus. There is also a lot of nice information about their agricultural climate, the phone app they have available (fancy!), and you can read about the growers who work hard every day to bring you these delicious high-quality products.

~Natalie, Dietetic Intern

 

Natalie is an intern with the Cox College Nutrition-Diagnostics Dietetic Internship in Springfield, Missouri. She grew up in O’Fallon, MO, which is in the St. Louis area, and moved down to Springfield four years ago for her Bachelor’s Degree in Dietetics at Missouri State University. Natalie is hoping to work as a dietitian in the outpatient clinical setting or as a retail dietitian.