Making the most of citrus fruits

Our family is very big on eating local produce and seasonal foods. 

Eating seasonally and locally has many benefits: a smaller carbon footprint, supporting your local economy, it's usually healthier etc. 

Right now we're in the winter season, so locally that means turnips, fennel, cabbage, carrots, dates, and... Citrus fruits! Lots and lots of citrus fruits. In fact, the only there is here during the winter are citrus fruits! So usually it's only during the winter that we buy bananas, to have a bit more variation in our diet. 

In our garden, we've got a lemon tree. It gives fruits about 3 times a year, so not only in the colder months. I love it, and we use lemons a lot! 

But tangerines and oranges we buy at the farmer's market. It's still tangerine season, and after the tangerines we'll move on to the oranges. 

But what do you all do with these citrus fruits? Like I said, citrus fruits are the only fruits in season now. So apart from imported bananas, that's the fruit we eat when its winter. Most people don't want to eat the same thing over and over again and with fruits, that's no exception. So here's some tips. 

*Making juice: an obvious one, but often overlooked. Fruit juice tastes very different than actually eating a fruit, in my opinion. 

*Incorporate into your favourite breakfast. One of my favourite breakfasts is plain yogurt with oats and some sort of seeds/nuts. I just add whatever fruit there's in season, whether that is tangerines, pomegranates or grapes. 

*Make snack platter. This is not only for kids, adults enjoy it very much as well, from my experience! That way, just like with eating fruit alongside your breakfast, it's not the *only* thing you'll eat. Some ideas to include to a snack platter: dates (also seasonal fruits), nuts, cheese, dried fruits such as raisins, raw veggies, olives. 

*Salads. Apparently there are some people who don't want to mix fruits and veg in a salad. I'm obviously not one of them. I really like fruits incorporated into salads, and I used a variety of fruits doing so. Citrus fruits are no exception and they're a fantastic combination with many other seasonal produce, like fennel and carrot. 

*Last year, it was the first time I made a huge batch of orange jam. Everyone in our family enjoyed it so much! In fact, the other day we just finished the last container of orange jam. It's defenitely a keeper. Added bonus is that you won't have to add as much sugar as you would with making other kinds of jams. We all love jam here and I make lots of different kinds of jam; peach, strawberry, fig, even watermelon jam! 

The huge amount of peels I gave to one of our neighbours who have a few cows. Apparently cows really enjoy eating orange peels. I was glad all those peels weren't tossed into the trash and going in a landfill! 

*Dehydrating oranges is something you could do. It makes a wonderful natural candy! 

*Another thing you can do with peels- whether it's lemon, tangerine or orange peels, doesn't really matter- is making your own cleaner. The only other ingredient you'll need is vinegar. It makes a good and ecofriendly cleaner! 

*If you like that winter-y kind of scent in your home but you don't like the idea of bringing all kinds of chemicals into your home, just make your own. Boil down some orange peels, apples, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla- among other things. I'm sure you'll find some interesting additions as well. 

I hope you found these ideas useful. 

Keeping yourself warm

 So, basically where we live it's getting cold! Many Europeans, when they think of Africa, they think of tropical places and all that. And while there may be some African countries where the climate is like that, there are much more countries that have 4 seasons.   So here we are, and winter has started. Maybe not officially yet, but its getting colder here! Living in a country where the average person has not a very high income, you'll learn to be creative with the resources you have. Contrary to what I was used too, many locals consider heating your home as a luxury. Say what?! Don't you NEED to heat your home?! Well, if you live in a very cold climate, I'd defenitely agree with that statement-- here however, it doesn't get THAT cold. It usually doesn't freeze here, and if it's cold its usually a few degrees above the freezing point. So you technically don't have to warm your house. So yeah, heaters are a luxury. And I've adjusted to that point of view. It's not that we don't use heaters at all, but we try to be careful with using heaters too much, both for environmental reasons as well as financial reasons. 

As I said its getting colder, but we still haven't turned on our heater. We certainly will when its getting colder! Though we acknowledge that heating is a luxury, we certainly love the convenience. But for now, we've taken certain measures to still be comfortable without a heater. 

Here are some things we do. 

Wearing sweaters and slippers. This is an obvious one but apparently not for everyone so I decided to start with this one! From my own experience, cold feet cool your entire body. And the opposite is also true; with warm feet you'll likely not getting chilly quickly. So warm slippers it is, and of course warm sweaters. I love wearing jumpers that my late grandmother knitted for me! Needless to say we also wear multiple layers of clothing. 

Drinking warm drinks. I am not into coffee, but I love tea and herbal infusions, some of which I forage such as olive leaves. I can appreciate a lovely hot chocolate too but try not to indulge in that too often! 

Switch to winter-y kind of meals. During the colder seasons our eating change a bit as we're eating more warming stews, soups and occasionally casseroles. We also like to eat all kinds of hot porridges for breakfast.

Another obvious but we try to stay very warm at night, with pajamas and thick blankets. Even once you've woken up you will stay warm for a long period of time. 

Being active during the day. Try to involve in activities that keep you warm. Cleaning (I like sweeping the floors with a broom- zero electricity used so very frugal/environmentally friendly plus a free workout), kneading dough, baking bread on my gas stovetop. There's so many more things but these were just some examples of how even indoor activities can keep you warm. As for outdoor activities, I like taking a walk and then being amazed by how warm my house actually is when I return! 

So, these are some things we do to stay warm before turning on the heater.