There are a lot of orange trees in this part of Portugal, lining the roads, in people's gardens and row upon row of them in acre upon acre of fields. There was even a 'War of the Oranges' between Portugal and Spain (supported by France) in 1801 although they weren't actually fighting over little orange balls, but land as is usually the way with wars. The trees are laden with fruit at the moment and along the side of the roads are little stalls with 5kg bags of oranges for sale for a couple of €.

At the farmers market last Saturday we were at a stall buying carrots when the old man tending it gestured at his box of oranges saying 'tudo, tudo' which thanks to my Portuguese classes I think meant all of them. I asked how much (in Portuguese!) but despite repeating it many times his accent was so strong I couldn't work out his answer. Finally we found a way to get the message across by him holding up a 1€ coin and 20c coin. A-haaaa! He only wanted €1.20 for them. He weighed them and there were over 3.5kgs; I felt bad taking them for so little so gave him some more money. I'm glad I did after reading the farmers view towards the end of this article about citrus growing in the Algarve.


Squeezing oranges

We had a bit of doubt over how they'd taste, but they were lovely with just the right amount of sweetness. Four oranges made 1 glass each, with enough oranges in our bag for at least 4 drinks worth. We'll be back for more!