Danks Street Depot Produce
Danks Street Depot proudly uses the best of the seasons produce, buying locally, supporting organic and biodynamic farming methods, all the time putting taste and quality at the forefront. Every month we will showcase a producer or a produce item.
Danks Street Depot proudly uses the best of the seasons produce, buying locally, supporting organic and biodynamic farming methods, all the time putting taste and quality at the forefront. Every month we will showcase a producer or a produce item.
Produce Showcase
Yango Gold - Poor Man's Orange
Some time ago, I met Peter Dryden. Peter has a farm just out side of the Wollombi Valley - a place called Wombat Bottoms. At Wombat Bottoms, Peter grows an unusual kind of citrus. He thinks that the fruit may be a variety of Poorman's Orange, which is probably a nineteenth century cross between a tangerine and a pomelo.
The flavour profile of this fruit is amazing - super juicy, it starts with a manndarin/navel orange and tangerine with tropical fruit accents and finishes with a clean, lingering grapefruit tang. Its a perfect balance of sweetness and acid. I love it with burnt sugar glaze for breakfast, in desserts such as catalan tart, in a mixed citrus salad or even with roasted beetroot and walnuts. Another good way to enjoy them is simply served on their own or juiced.
The fruit may have disappeared forever had Peter and his wife Elsa not discovered it in Elsa's parents Turramurra garden on an ageing tree over thirty years ago. Elsa's mother had always grown fruit and vegetables from seed and Poorman's Orange was also used as rootstock, so while Peter and Elsa don't know exactly what they have, Poorman's Orange is a good bet. They've been unsuccessfully looking for it in shops and at markets both here and overseas ever since. They took the initiative and had a small number of trees grafted off and planted in their Gordon garden. The trees prospered and the fruit was as good as that of the parent tree.
The next step was obvious to them when they bought a block of land in the Wollombi Valley and they started an orchard. You can visit and even stay at Wombat Bottoms its an 11acre property with its own creek meandering through. Email drydpayn@bigpond.net.au if you want to get away from it all for a while or sample some of his amazing fruit (in season in August).
Peter's "Yango Gold" poorman's orange is a happy accident and a great example of why we should encourage heirloom and old seed varieties before they are lost forever.
Yango Gold - Poor Man's Orange
Some time ago, I met Peter Dryden. Peter has a farm just out side of the Wollombi Valley - a place called Wombat Bottoms. At Wombat Bottoms, Peter grows an unusual kind of citrus. He thinks that the fruit may be a variety of Poorman's Orange, which is probably a nineteenth century cross between a tangerine and a pomelo.
The flavour profile of this fruit is amazing - super juicy, it starts with a manndarin/navel orange and tangerine with tropical fruit accents and finishes with a clean, lingering grapefruit tang. Its a perfect balance of sweetness and acid. I love it with burnt sugar glaze for breakfast, in desserts such as catalan tart, in a mixed citrus salad or even with roasted beetroot and walnuts. Another good way to enjoy them is simply served on their own or juiced.
The fruit may have disappeared forever had Peter and his wife Elsa not discovered it in Elsa's parents Turramurra garden on an ageing tree over thirty years ago. Elsa's mother had always grown fruit and vegetables from seed and Poorman's Orange was also used as rootstock, so while Peter and Elsa don't know exactly what they have, Poorman's Orange is a good bet. They've been unsuccessfully looking for it in shops and at markets both here and overseas ever since. They took the initiative and had a small number of trees grafted off and planted in their Gordon garden. The trees prospered and the fruit was as good as that of the parent tree.
The next step was obvious to them when they bought a block of land in the Wollombi Valley and they started an orchard. You can visit and even stay at Wombat Bottoms its an 11acre property with its own creek meandering through. Email drydpayn@bigpond.net.au if you want to get away from it all for a while or sample some of his amazing fruit (in season in August).
Peter's "Yango Gold" poorman's orange is a happy accident and a great example of why we should encourage heirloom and old seed varieties before they are lost forever.