Blood Oranges

Those of you who love blood oranges don't need to be told how exquisitely wonderful they are. In the kingdom of citrus, blood oranges are royalty. You know that every bite is an explosion of sweet, deep orange flavor, with hints of raspberry.

I wish there were more of you, then growers would grow more, and blood oranges would be easier for everyone to get their hands on.

The problem is, I'm convinced, the name. "Blood" oranges. The shock of cutting into a blood orange for the first time and not seeing the familiar orange, but vivid garnet red, which if perfectly ripe drips its blood colored juices everywhere, is just too much for many of us. It looks like blood. Why in the world would we want to eat a fruit that reminds us of blood?

If however, the marketing powers that be renamed the blood orange "Sangria Orange", then there would be no issue. Sangria comes from the word "sangre" which means "blood" in Spanish, but most English speakers don't know that; to most of us sangria is simply a red wine drink spiced with oranges. Instead of conjuring up images of some poor animal freshly slaughtered we would think happy thoughts of festive Sangria. We would imagine this orange to be the color of red wine, not blood. Renaming a fruit has been done before. Some marketing board in New Zealand came up with the idea of promoting Chinese gooseberries as kiwifruit. And now kiwifruit are so popular around the world the word kiwi is even a color, kiwi green.

We have a blood orange tree that my parents planted 5 years ago and is now this year, for the first time, bearing fruit. The tree is heavy with blood oranges. I've been experimenting with them a little, making salads, but I've come to the conclusion that, at least for the blood oranges from our tree, the best way to eat them is just to eat them. Slice them, peel on, and eat them. The flavor is so good, they just don't need a thing.

If you've never had a blood orange, or have shied away from them because of the name, think "Sangria" and get yourself to a store that carries them like Whole Foods. You will be delighted by them.

If you are interested in what kinds of recipes would work with blood oranges, check out the following from other food bloggers:

• Blood orange sorbet by Shauna the Gluten-free Girl

• Roasted beet and blood orange salad from Heidi of 101 Cookbook

• Blood orange with watercress and manchego at Holy Basil

• Blood orange petit fours by Nika of Nika's Culinaria

• Blood orange sorbet from David Lebovitz