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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Rebeca
I’m voting for the avocados! Great giveaway and great looking recipe!
mom23
Hi,
Actually, I’d love to see you move to the East coast, bring some of the warm weather with you and have all this yummy product available locally. Realizing that is unlikely, I’d love to be able to order fresh olives ( or were those available while in season?) on line, as well as cherries, citrus and poms…
I love that you are offering pasture raised meats!
I may have to ask for a crate of mandarins for my birthday or a holiday gift!
Kristin howell
any of the stone fruits. love, love, love cherries, avacados, peaches, apricots!!! YUM!
mom23
HI…
I love this blog… love getting your emails with all these wonderful recipes.
I can’t wait to try this one.
I had a question though… after you cook the “custard” you strain it to strain out the curd… do you not eat the other part? Are you just straining out the lumps ?
I haven’t made curd before so wasn’t sure…
thanks!
KimiHarris
Good question! You are straining out the orange zest. 🙂
Terri
The cherries, definitely the cherries. They are a real treat, and it’s hard to find them grown without chemicals.
Betty
I vote for the grass fed beef. I am having so much trouble finding that in my area.
Love the recipes!
Tara
I vote for stone fruits – cherries, nectarines, peaches! Yum! The mandarins look delicious.
Janice
My hubby loves Clementines and Mandarin oranges. I would love to see fresh cherries, grapefruit and nectarines available online. Oh, and their jams too!
Melinda
I would love to try the figs! You can’t find good figs around here.
Rebecca
I have a hard time finding poutry locally and always like to find farms I can order from. It would be great if they shipped and the rates were reasonable. I would love to enter to win a box of yummy madarin oranges!
Cory
Oranges, nectarines and most of the other fruits! In small town Iowa you don’t find any organic fruit. Wonderful giveaway. I have never tasted fresh mandarin orange before. No doubt it tastes much better than the canned!
Irene Clark
It’s difficult to make once choice – but I vote for the olive oil.
Grace
I would love to get some of their figs online! Nature’s candy… Mandarin oranges would be fun too!
Katie
I would probably say the fruits, since they are not grown locally in my area!
Sally
Well, those mandarins sure do sound delicious, and so do the Lisbon lemons! I didn’t find a link at all; I had to google Chaffin Family orchards and go from there. Was I just missing it somewhere–no blue words highlighted, no WWW that I could see.
KimiHarris
Sally,
After the directions for making the curd, you should find the information about the giveaway with a statement starting “click here for a chance to win….”. That’s the link.
Lindsay
I would love to try the olive oil, oranges, grass fed beef, and cherries! Mmmm…they look SO GOOD!
Melissa
I would love to see the figs available online. I bought some of their olive oil and it’s awesome!
Becky
I would like the grass fed beef and lamb, oranges, pomegranates, figs and avocados.
Victoria
I would love to be able to buy their unfiltered olive oil over the Internet. The only type I can get here is imported from Italy, which is far less local than the Chaffin Farms. The shipping costs wouldn’t be outrageous for a 375ml bottle, but in the summer, heat might be an issue. If they offer it only during the cooler months, I’d buy ahead!
Crystal
It’s one of our tradition to order a box of citrus fruits during Christmas time. These look great and I would love to switch to an organic farmer!
Rayelle
Hands down, I would choose the peaches and apricots to be offered online. Since conventional peaches are now one of the most contaminated fruits, and I couldn’t find any organic besides buying individually at the health food store, I didn’t can any peaches at all this year. I’m sure going to miss them all winter. I suspected apricots were pretty bad too so I didn’t do any jam or maple/apricot sauce either. If I could order them online at a reasonable price I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Joyce Johnson
The figs sound wonderful. Used to get them from friends trees when we lived in California when I was growing up. They sell them here in Idaho but they are usually picked a little green.
Rebecca
I want to see all of the fruits online! I’m also in the midwest where good-quality ones aren’t as easily available. The stone fruits are my favorite.
Tara
mmmm… fruit.
Jeanie
The fruits sound delicious:)
kara bagley
the chicken sounds ultra nice
Penny
I would have to pick the grass fed Beef & olive oil. We are lucky enough to be close to a metropolitan city so we participate in door to door organics, but finding grass fed beef and organic meat is a bit more challenging locally. I have to say I just found this site last week and I LOVE it! I made the creamy cranberry salad tonight and it is wonderful.
Alli
I would love to see the olive oil available – there’s a link to it on the shop page, but nothing there…
Mari
The fruit would be great if I could order online. ..:)
Laura
First, I have to say the virtual tour is glorious! I’m not sure if I’d like to just buy their stuff online, but rather travel out there and experience it for myself. I would love to have their fresh eggs, goat’s milk, sheep’s milk/meat . . . oh if only that was a possible internet purchase. I’m looking forward to their January olive oil. I think I’ll buy a gallon!
Christine
I would love cherries.
Anna
All their products look wonderful… but I guess I would say fruit. Just looking at their website makes me hungry!
We also recently found your site and love it! Thank you, Kimi, for all the time you put into writing information and recipes for the rest of us to benefit from.
Lucy Ashes
I would be real interested in their figs as I never see fresh figs for sale in my community, especially if they are natural. On the rare occasion that I do acquire fresh figs I halve them, top each half with a little dab of mild goat cheese, a sprinkling of chopped fresh rosemary leaf and a drizzle of honey or Grand Mariner, then bake on a flat sheet at 350° until hot. Yum, just too delicious.
Janis
The LEMONS!!!!!!!!!!! I am a transplant from California and I want LEMONS!!!!!!
Bethany Willis
MMMMmmmmm. Lamb. Roasted. With garlic and potatoes. Mouth watering-RIGHT NOW!
lizzykristine
Those mandarin oranges do look tempting. 🙂
I’d have to agree with a few other commenters, that high quality olive oil is hard to come by and might make a good shipping choice…
Sophia
I vote for pastured poultry!
Would love those oranges…mmmm….
Rochelle
This farm looks amazing…I would love a visit. I would also love to be able to purchase grass fed beef online!
Rochelle
Everything looks delcious, but I would love some grass fed beef!
Erin
Persimmons!! My kids and I love them!!
Vic
I have to vote for the figs………….don’t know much about the different types, but both sounded yummy. The mandarins are a given desire.
Allegra
Fuji persimmons, such a magnificent fruit! ……and the lamb. yum
Annie
I agree w/ a previous commenter; I’d love to be able to VISIT – but don’t see that happening anytime soon! As peaches are one of my favorite fruits, but are at the TOP of the “dirty dozen” for carrying the highest pesticide load, I’d love to be able to get them organically – and affordably (I do realize there’s usually a higher cost for growers not using pesticides). So that’d be my choice. The mandarins look awesome! I’m not sure I’ve ever had one (except canned). We do usually enjoy clementines but I’m not sure how similar they are to mandarins. Will look forward to Dec. 2 🙂 to see if we win! 🙂
Alicia
Let me say I adore the setup of the Chaffin website, so easy to navigate! Anywho despite living down south it is really hard to get good citrus. It would be a dream to get any of their citrus online. It is navel orange season down here and I only managed to get a hold of five local ones. *cries*
I would love to be able to get fresh olives to cure. I would also love to be able to order their mission figs, thinking of all the wonderful tarts and breads and tapenades I could make gets me dreamy eyed. Ohh and of course all the stone fruit.
Jennifer
Cherries are so tasty. I would like to see those online. I wonder how hard it would be to ship eggs. The supposedly local eggs in stores around here don’t seem very good. If I try to seperate the yolk from the white, the yolk can hardly hold together. I miss the true farm fresh eggs that I get when visiting my mother.
Peggy
OH, I would love to see the Blenheim apricots available on-line but understand how delicate they are. I lived in Monterrey for a time back in the late 80’s and so miss the wonderful organic produce. I can’t remember if the figs are available on line but would sure like to taste some again. A gentleman we knew in OH grew them in containers which he wrapped in burlap and brought inside each winter. They made your mouth sing with joy!!
(P.S.) Do you know if they ship to Alaska? We will be moving to Indiana in January so I we will be order from them in the future!!
Peggy
OH I forgot I have a new e-mail address so I left it in the reply… thanks…
Kim G
The figs would be great to be able to order online.
Fresh figs are amazing.
I used to eat them when we lived in Medford, Oregon…
Karen H.
Oh I would love to try fresh mandarin oranges. I have only had canned.
Cherries would be another wonderful thing to get as well as olive oil. I live in PA but wished I lived closer to the west coast so I could shop at the farm.
Thanks for the opportunity to win!
Trachelle
Beef, chicken, stone fruit, and olive oil are all hard to find locally here in the frozen tundra of Alaska. Affordable online options are always appreciated.
Kelly Scanlon
I would love to try the ruby red grapefruit! Oh and the olive oil!