Sacramento Digs Gardening: Serve season's oranges dressed for dinner -- or breakfast

You can't go wrong with citrus this time of year. This simple dish can serve as a salad, a dessert after a heavy meal, or a starter at brunch.

Use any combination of oranges you like, but do include at least 1 blood orange for that marvelous color.

Lavender and lemon lightly enhance the orange plate in a simple syrup, which isn't thick, more like a dressing. Letting it soak into the oranges for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator boosts the flavors, but that's not mandatory.

I was lucky enough to have a few fresh lavender blossoms off a plant, but if you don't, a bit of dried culinary lavender will work for this, too.

Oranges with lavender-lemon syrup

Ingredients:

1 generous teaspoon fresh lavender flowers, or 1/2 teaspoon dried

1/2 cup water

Juice from 1 tart lemon

Juice from 1 Meyer lemon or ripe lime

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 to 2 teaspoons agave syrup or light-flavored honey

3 small navel oranges, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch slices

3 blood oranges, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch slices

Instructions:

Using Cara Cara oranges if you have them
would add a bit of pink with the
oranges and blood oranges.

You can peel the oranges with your hands, but I like the clear un-pithy edge from using a serrated knife to cut off outer peel. Spread the slices out on a serving plate in a pleasing design.

To make the syrup, stir together in a small pot the juices, water, lavender flowers, sugar and 1 teaspoon agave or honey.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer and cook until lightly syrupy, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat, allow to cool enough to taste it, and add another 1 teaspoon agave or honey if desired.

Strain the syrup through a strainer into a small pitcher or measuring cup. Drizzle the syrup over the oranges and serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Save the extra syrup for another day's salad, or use as a mixer with beverages.

RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipes recipes fruit oranges citrus salad dessert produce management farmers markets orchard fruit Sacramento gardening

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact

April 7: Calendulas do double duty

April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come

March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)

March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots

March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy

Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come

Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers

Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses

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Garden checklist for week of April 19

After this midweek storm, start getting serious about spring gardening. Flowers are blooming about three weeks ahead of schedule. That includes weeds!

* Get ready to swing into action in the vegetable garden – if you haven’t already. As nights warm up over 50 degrees, set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, radishes and squash; wait on pumpkins until May. Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom. Late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Smell orange blossoms? Give citrus trees a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants. If leaves look yellow, your tree may need an iron boost -- apply some chelated iron fertilizer.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden needs nutrition. Give shrubs and trees a slow-release fertilizer. Mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost, which helps the soil, but keep it a few inches away from trunks and stems.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

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