Do you want to know what is the best and healthy fruit of the world? This fruit is, as usual, Sicilian. It is the red orange, the most famous and important typical food from Sicily. Why the red orange is so important for our daily diet? The reply is very simple, as usual: because this Sicilian fruit is filled with antioxidants and Vitamin C. Furthermore, this fruit is slightly sour and has a low level of sugar. There are no similar oranges in the world, not even the ones coming from Spain, Africa and passed off as red orange of Sicily. Those who said this told a great lie and are engineering a big food fraud! The red orange of Sicily has a wrinkled peel and a juicy and red pulp. This is a particular variety of orange also called blood orange, namely Sicilian blood orange. You can find this variety only in Sicily, even though, some sources affirm this fruit was imported from China, but there are many products made in China nowadays, please let us the red orange in Sicily, at least! The main varieties of red orange are Tarocco, Moro and Sanguinello. There are grown in the East of Sicily, in the famous plane of Catania, from Palagonia, Ramacca, Lentini and up to Paternò.
These small towns are included in the wonderful Noto Valley. In these areas, weather is particularly suitable to grow this fruit. The red orange resists the low temperature in winter and becomes red in the pulp thanks to the sun it receives along the other seasons. As you know, Sicily weather is typically Mediterranean and only in this weather, the orange red can obtain its healthy properties. There are many producers of red orange here and you should see with your eyes what happens during the growing of this Sicilian fruit, especially if you want to buy boxes with the real red orange from Sicily Don’t believe to e-commerce websites from Spain or other countries written in English. They can’t sell red orange, but other kind of oranges with no healthy properties.
But what are these properties?
The red orange contains the proper dose of sugar, water, vitamins and antioxidants. The balanced mix of these substances makes the orange particularly suitable to calm thirsty and take a good daily amount of mineral salts and Vitamin C. Surely, there are many oranges that have the same amount of vitamins C.
And so? Why the red orange is so important for our and your health?
Here is the answer: because the red orange contains a group of antioxidants called anthocyanins. These are a group of molecules that give the red colour to this variety of orange. Anthocyanins are among the most powerful antioxidants in the world because prevent cell oxidation and also a disease linked to the same cell oxidation, namely: cancer. Anthocyanins clean our cells from poisons taken from unhealthy foods and pollution. No other orange has these properties. Despite all, the red orange of Sicily has a low commerce in the world, because replaced with other less useful varieties of oranges. I personally ate the variety Tarocco Gallo, this winter. This is the main variety grown in the towns I mentioned above in this post.
Unfortunately, at the supermarket, Tarocco Gallo is scarce, even in your supermarket and in your country, I suppose. Baskets and boxes of red orange are sold online by the Sicilian producers because in Sicily and Italy, many grocery stores have been invaded by foreign oranges! Don’t trust the juice of red orange of Sicily, also . Usually, this is another fraud, because the real juice of red orange of Sicily must be made with a good basket of red oranges. The juices you find at the supermarket are made with a small percent of red orange ( provided that oranges are real red of Sicily) and added with chemical preservatives and refined sugar! To clean your body and prevent diseases, you must prepare the juice of red orange of Sicily by yourself and squeeze five red oranges at your home.
The best recipe to taste the red orange from Sicily is the orange salad. Just cut peel a couple of red oranges and slice them in pieces, add a pinch of salt, garlic or onion, a bunch of parsley and a bit of olive oil and eat one the healthiest dishes of Sicily! With the red orange you can also prepare a cake with Sicilian almonds, a sauce, a cream and much more! If you want to information to get a good basket of real red oranges at your home, see here. Maybe the Sicilian red orange producers don’t ship this product abroad. Hence, I suggest that you visit the previous link, contact the Sicilian producers to visit their farm when you are in Sicily and buy the red orange on the spot.
About the prices of the red orange of Sicily, a box of 16 kg is 32 euro plus shipping costs.
Sources of the images:
Livestrong.com
Blog.giallozafferano.it
Aranciadoc.com
Rosalba Mancuso is a freelance journalist born in Sicily. Passionate about her loved island and with extensive writing experience, Rosalba worked as a contributor for the main Sicily’s newspapers and as a bilingual Italian – English writer. Thanks to her skills, she also founded four websites in English. On Sicilyonweb, Rosalba tells every corner of her beloved Sicily. Furthermore, she writes this blog thanks to your help. Rosalba, in fact, earns a small commission, with no cost for you, when you book your travel or buy products through the affiliate widgets or links you find in her posts.
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