A group of U3A Moraira-Teulada early risers met at La Senieta at 8.15 on Wednesday 13th March for our visit to Huerto Ribera. A typical Valencian orange grove from 1870 in Carcaixent, approximately 35 km from Valencia. The trip was organised and lead by Eileen and Ian Brown.
On arrival, we had a very warm welcome from Teresa and Ana, our guides for the visit. Teresa is a member of the founding family. We were greeted with, coffee and tea and no end of local cakes and biscuits, many flavoured with the citrus fruits from the Huerto.
We walked through the gardens and the fields and learnt many things about Carcaixent and the history of citrus growing in Valencia. We learnt that Carcaixent was the Cuna de la Naranja, the cradle of the orange. Originally there were no orange groves just families with one or two trees, but the production and planting of the groves expanded rapidly in the middle of the 19th century aided by the arrival in the area of the railway. Huerto Ribera was founded in 1870 and is still owned and run by the same family.
We learnt about citrus cultivation, varieties, pruning, grafting and flowering. We were also shown some of the more unusual varieties of citrus fruits, Kumquats, Limequats, the Hand of Buddha, Calamondin, and encouraged to taste them. We thoroughly enjoyed picking our own oranges from the trees to take home, having been given our own orange net. The oranges grown there are primarily grown for juice and the main variety was Valencia Midnight. They also grow blood oranges for juice. We saw the machine for cleaning the oranges and calibrating them. Those of us with citrus trees of our own picked up many tips. We were also served some wonderful blood orange/ Valencia Midnight juice.
The tour finished with a visit to the shop where we had the opportunity to taste and buy many of the finest Valencian products, including a variety of jams,
as well as lemon and orange marmalades and local honey, biscuits, vinegars, gin, vermouth and liqueurs…
We followed the visit with a trip into Carcaixent to find restaurants for lunch, some of which had been recommended by the Huerto.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day.
It is possible to book guided visits: www.huertoribera.com
www.visitas@huertoribera.com
WhatsApp: +34 696 94 51 20
