Sunny delight

I adore Clementines and blood oranges. The color and taste instantly puts a happy spin on an otherwise gloomy winter day. (Will we ever see the sun again?)

Recently, I've seen ads promoting Honeybell tangelos from Florida - the season is one very short month - and I was inspired by the pomelos, Meyer lemons, Star ruby grapefruit and kumquats piled in bins during a trip through the ginormous produce department of the new ShopRite store in Wilmington. (Definitely worth a look-see. Also, owners say the meat department is the largest in Delaware.)

Thus, today's story on winter citrus was born.

While it's not local fruit - it is seasonal and buying foods in season makes sense both economically and taste-wise. One of my goals for 2009 is telling readers what's fresh now (or coming soon) and how to get it.

News Journal photographer Fred Comegys initially grumbled when he was assigned to shoot the citrus in the studio.

"Dumb, boring fruit," I think were his exact, cranky words when he showed up with his cameras. But Fred and I are longtime buddies and I'm used to his bitching and needling. This is Fred being Fred. I started slicing open navel oranges and grapefruit - the aroma was pure Florida sunshine - and page designer Howard Johnson came up with a cool idea to arrange the fruit and light it from underneath.

Everyone's mood was lifted. That's the zesty magic of citrus. (JUST AN FYI: Fred took the photos at the top and bottom of this post; the one is middle was taken by me at ShopRite with my crappy camera phone.)

After the shoot was over, Howard and I sampled the pink-flesh pomelo that was bigger than a cantaloupe, but smaller than a bowling bowl. It was wonderfully sweet. Others in office, who never had pomelo, also were impressed with the taste.

Move over grapefruit.