Satsumas are showing up at fruit and vegetable stands around town. The lusciously sweet citrus fruits with their easy-to-open skins and discrete sections can't help but bring a smile. They're much more green than orange, but that doesn't keep the juicy sections from being a pleasure.
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Satsuma tree, loaded up.[/caption]Satsumas are the first citrus fruits of the Louisiana season, and herald the arrival in a month or two of the world's best oranges. Satsumas are native to the former Satsuma province on the island of Kyushu in Japan, where they seem to have mutated from a kind of orange. They came to this country in 1878, and are better known as mandarins (a reference to their Far Eastern origins) or tangerines. The satsumas in Southeast Louisiana are different from those found in other citrus-growing areas of America, and remain very similar to the original Japanese variety brought here by the Jesuits. Thin skins with large oil pockets are their hallmarks.
Hurricane Isaac in 2012 did some damage to the satsuma trees. The orchards around Chauvin and Cocodrie were slammed by the storm's surge, and salt water damages and even kills the trees. But there's no denying the goodness of the ones my daughter and I have enjoyed for the past week or so. Another interesting thing about satsumas is that they're at the peak of quality almost immediately after the first ones appear. Get them soon. They're not around long.
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