Growing up, my mother would get boxes of mandarin oranges at Christmas time. How well I remember eating orange after orange while watching Christmas movies and reading books (my favorite hobby). It was a very special treat and probably gave me a lot of vitamin C during cold and flu season!
Oranges are one of those foods that speak Christmas to me. As does desserts like orange curd…more on that in a second.
One of Real Food Media’s sponsors, Chaffin Family Orchards offered to send me a box of their mandarins and I said “Yes, please!” All those memories rushed back as I sampled these delicious sweet and tart oranges. And these are way better than my childhood ones because they are cultivated to organic standards (though not certified), the peels haven’t been treated in the least, and they came from old trees which means flavorful and sweet oranges.
After enjoying these for a day or two and loving how good they were, I asked Chris of Chaffin Family Orchards if he would like to do a giveaway of these beautiful oranges. I was thrilled that he agreed. One lucky reader will get a beautiful large box of mandarin oranges, worth 40 dollars retail. For the rest of you, I would definitely consider buying a box this Christmas season (shipping is free). They ship until December the 14th.
To Enter the contest, keep reading. But first let me give you a lovely recipe for mandarins, orange curd. It’s sweet and creamy and really quite simple to make. The mandarins were a great choice for the curd since they are really flavorful with just a slight tartness to it. I filled little tart shells with the curd and topped with fresh mandarin oranges (delicious!). You can also use it as a cake filling, top fresh fruit with it, serve it on top of chocolate pudding (doesn’t that sound divine?), or just eat it off the spoon (seriously good).
Sweet Orange Curd
This is a more frugal version of curd, because, like the Joy of Cooking’s version, I use whole eggs instead of just the egg yolks. However, you could substitute 6 egg yolks for the whole eggs for a super rich curd.3 large eggs
1/4 cup of honey
Grated zest of one orange (1 1/2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup of fresh orange juice juice
6 tablespoons virgin coconut oil, ghee, or butter.1-In a medium stainless steel or enamel saucepan, whisk together the first three ingredients until light colored.
2-Add the the coconut oil, ghee or butter, breaking it into small clumps as you drop it into the pot for even melting. Then add the orange juice.
3-Cook, whisking, over medium heat until the coconut oil is melted. Continue to cook until the mixture thickens and you start to see a few bubbles popping at the surface, and remove immediately from the heat, still whisking to prevent the eggs from getting overcooked.
4-Scrape into a fine sieve set over a bowl. Strain the curd by gently stirring through the sieve.
5-Refrigerate for several hours to thicken. Will keep about one week in the refrigerator.
Contest Rules
This contest will end on December the first at 11:59 PM PST. The winner will be chosen via random.org, and will be announced on December the 2nd. You must live within the United States to enter this contest.
Like all of the giveaways done with my sponsors I will be receiving a small compensation for hosting this giveaway.
Thanks so much Chaffin Family Orchards for a great Holiday Giveaway!
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Love the chicken!
I like the cherries. Delicious and perfect for small hands and mouths without too much prepwork. I also like the jams to send as gifts.
Grass fed beef, please!
The oranges look delicious! Those don’t grow around my area, so I’d love to be able to get some!
Definitely pomegranates and figs. Yum. Thanks for the giveaway, Kimi.
I always put 1 orange and 1 apple in my daughters stocking as a reminder of the days when that was the gift and people were grateful to have it. Nice photos….
The grass fed lamb and beef…And the figs!
I am lucky enough to be here in Chico – so Chaffin is pretty local for us. But, I would still love to be able to order online sometimes just for convenience. And I would like to see the chicken – its not easy to find local, fresh poultry around here!
–Sue
Yummy looking mandarins! I’d love to have an online source for more varieties of olives and cherries. Thanks for the giveaway!
It’s extremely difficult to locate chickens not fed soy! I would love to find a source for chicken!
the chickens!!! and lots of olives!
I am definitely interested in the olives. I didn’t think it was possible to get one grown in the US.
Definitely their jams! I love jams because they have a longer shelf life than fresh fruit and usually you can find a flavor that everyone will enjoy… or even a sampler of flavors for several different tastes
Cherries and figs is what I would like to order online, but everything looks delicious! Mandarin oranges sound so good right now! Thanks!
FIGS! The description of them sounds fantastic. But I love oranges too!
I would love to be able to get some of that wonderful olive oil online! Ohhh, and the cherries too
I would love the cherries. When they are in season I can’t seem to get enough.
Nova
The grass-fed beef!
Thanks for the chance to win the oranges, my mouth is watering after reading your post!
Everything sounds delicious! I would say the figs or the olives would be of great interest to me.
The olive oil and chickens.
The mandarin oranges sound delicious. I thought the avocados would be a neat thing to be offered online since some people might use a lot in baby food making. I would be nice to have a source that would not have to travel as far as Peru or Chile like the ones from my grocery store.
Man, I would love to buy goat meat and fresh olives online/by mail. So unusual and hard to find, especially in Oregon.
Would love to try the cherries and olive oil! The oranges would be a lovely thing to have around this month when baby #5 comes and children are looking for quick snacks — what a great idea!
I would love to see the navel oranges and the lemons offered online. This recipe sounds fabulous! YUMMY..!
This time of year, I’m craving satsumas, but have had to move away from my beloved orchards. snif snif! The satsumas from Chaffin Family Orchards look PERFECT!
I would love to be able to order cheeries and peaches!
Oh, I would love to order the olives or the lemons. Thank you for a great giveaway.
The grass fed beef or goat meat for sure.
I LOVE fresh figs! And happy chickens… Thanks Kimi!
I’d love to order some olives! I wish I lived closer, so I could buy some avocados. I don’t know if they would ship well. I might order some olive oil for my DH for Christmas– He loves the stuff.
I just started reading your blog in the past couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to delving into your recipes! Nourishing cooking is new to me, and I’m fascinated to discover all these blogs about it!
I can’t get past the citrus, we can grow my other favorites here in KY, but I just can’t think of anything more tasty than citrus at Christmastime!
I would want to order the grass fed beef or the chickens. The oranges look delicious as well.
All weekend long I’ve been craving cherries; I would love it if they could be shipped! Thanks for the giveaway!
Liz
Figs! The description makes them sound like a real treat.
Would love any fruit, but esp. cherries and peaches. Thanks for the giveaway!
What a beautiful farm the Chaffins have! A little slice of heaven for sure! It was all making me droll and sigh. LOL! I think I am most intrigued with the olive oil, since that is something I can’t grow myself (well, among other things…like the mandarin oranges, which also look good and I am definitely going to try your recipe).
Definitely the olive oil and ALL of the fruits! : )
The figs! I can’t get these locally and they sound so delicious!
Figs, definitely….and the beef would be great, too.
I’d vote for cherries. The season is so short here. Do they make good pies? Mmmmm.
Definitely the grass fed chickens for me…so hard to find great chicken these days! THanks for the giveaway!
The grass finished beef would be awesome!
I would love to have some of the figs. To be able to get fresh figs straight from the farm would be wonderful.
I would love to have that kind of quality lamb available! I have only had lamb a few times, but they were good experiences and I would love to expand our choices of high quality meats.
Black Misson olive would be great. We love mandarine oranges!
Cherries if it would be feasible. Chickens likewise.
And I’m definitely going to try those orange tarts. Yum!
I am a fan of fresh grapefruit right from the farm. Nothing is more refreshing. Living in Michigan I rarely get the chance for such a treat especially during the cold winter months. Thanks Chaffin Family Orchards for this wonderful holiday giveaway!!!!
I would love the mandarin oranges! They are a great superfood.
I am half-way through a gallon of Chaffin Family olive oil. I love it!
Thanks for this opportunity to try another another one of their products.
It would be great to have grass fed beef… but how the shipping would work, I don’t know.
i’d love to be able to order purple figs!!!!! mmmmmmh.
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