Fruit, vegetables and pulses

Belladonna orange of San Giuseppe

Belladonna orange of San Giuseppe: the late orange once sent to the tsars

A late, blond-fleshed orange from the Gallico and Catona valleys just north of Reggio Calabria, ripening in April and May. Until the 1970s it travelled across Europe as far as Russia, which earned it the name tsars' orange. Today it is a Slow Food Presidium and a traditional product of Calabria.

• Oval fruit of about 200 grams with a thin peel
• Blond, juicy flesh with hardly a seed
• A long keeper: growers once stored it in sand right through the summer

How to enjoy it. Peel it and eat it fresh in late spring, when the season comes round. It also makes good marmalade and candied peel.

Production areas

Calabria

Season

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