On the tree, then into the marmalade pot! Oranges in Buskett Gardens.

There was always another New Year’s ritual in my household as a child growing up in the UK. No sooner had the Christmas decorations come down on 6th January, than a different feast for the senses would fill the house – the smell of oranges cooking; Seville bitter oranges only being available for a couple of weeks on the local market. It fell to my father to do the marmalade making, which would take him every evening for around a week. An ancient Spong’s slicer was screwed onto the kitchen table and wound away finely slicing pound (not kilo) upon pound of rind.

Little did I know as a child that in later life I’d not only be making marmalade but actually picking the oranges for it! That sure beats food miles. And once you’ve tasted fresh marmalade from tree to pot in a couple of hours, you’ll never want to eat factory-made again.

Today in Malta, the bitter orange isn’t a hot seller. The public-private partnership nursery, Wied Incita, near Attard only sells the sweeter varieties. These, incidentally, are simply the best for juicing, in terms of price – €3 per 4 kilo – taste and volume, that I’ve come across anywhere. If you want to make marmalade, try to find a neighbour with a bitter orange tree or pick for free from some of the village boulevard trees rather than see the fruit go to waste. The bitter variety has a much thicker and heavily dimpled skin.

But until the 14th century or so, the bitter orange was the only sort cultivated in Malta. Orange growing probably arrived here with the Arabs, who also brought their ingenious irrigation system of farming to the Islands. The Maltese word for orange, Laring, derives from the Arabic Persian na¯rang. Portuguese traders brought sweet oranges from India in the 14th century and the Portuguese Knights of the Order or St John no doubt introduced them to Malta.

The humble bitter orange has a rich history then, and a rightful place in Malta, however few and far between its trees are these days. But it does have a special place in the hearts of the islanders, and not just among a few (mostly British expat) mamalade makers I know. Because the bitter orange is the staple ingredient of Kinnie, a much loved and famed soft drink that is sold everywhere the Maltese live in numbers – Australia included!

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Winter's crowning glory: the Cape Sorrel

One of the most common flowering plants at the moment is the Cape Sorrel which grows abundantly in most types of ground.  This plant is so well spread in Malta that one would automatically assume it’s a native species.  The truth, however, is that it’s only been on the Islands for two hundred years.

The Maltese call the Cape Sorrel Haxixa Ngliza; literally, the English plant.  It is also called Qarsu from the Maltese word for sour, due to the sour-taste of its stalk which can be chewed for an acidic sensation.  The plant is in fact a strong source of oxalic acid.

The Cape Sorrel which we today take so for granted as part of our winter landscape, is in fact of South African origin from the Cape area.  This area, source of so many modern day quality wines, boasts a Mediterranean climate which makes one understand why the Cape Sorrel adapted so easily to the Maltese environment.

Why do we call this plant the “English Plant”?  According to tradition, the plant was introduced to Malta in the first years of British rule by an English lady who was convinced of its ornamental qualities.  The lady gave a few samples to the curator of the Argotti Botanical Gardens in Floriana but the plant subsequently escaped from the gardens and proceeded to spread across the Maltese countryside at a very fast pace.  So fast was its spread that within a few decades it had established itself as Malta’s foremost wild plant, surpassing the local crown daisy.

As if this was not enough, the plant eventually also managed to escape from Malta and spread along the entire Mediterranean basin and up the Atlantic coast of Europe to colonise even parts of South Devon in the United Kingdom!  It is an amazing fact when one considers that a few samples from South Africa that managed to take root in Floriana eventually spread over such a huge territory.  All the European Cape Sorrels in existence today may lay claim to being relatives of the Floriana specimens originally introduced by the English lady two hundred years ago.

Another interesting observation relating to the Cape Sorrels of Maltese origin is that since the original specimens introduced by the lady were all of the same gender, the plants only reproduce asexually, that is without producing seeds.  The Cape Sorrel in Malta, the Mediterranean and Europe in fact only reproduces through bulbs of the same gender as the original.

The Haxixa Ngliza is so common that one rarely ever stops to notice it.  In some places it literally forms carpets of delicate flowers that light up in a fluorescent yellow once bathed in sunlight.  The flowers close at night to reopen again once in the sun’s rays.  It is at its peak from late December to February.  So do stop and have a good look at this unassuming invader which has so easily established itself as part of our natural landscape, and which has used this small archipelago as a springboard to launch an even bigger colonisation of an entire region!

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Poinsettias: thriving outside in Malta, but not on our hall tables!

When I first moved into my renovated farmhouse, a huge poinsettia flopped over the rubble wall from the neighbouring, semi-wild garden of a disused palazzo. For two years, its stunning flame-red leaves (bracts) did the business at Christmas and far surpassed the hot-house varieties available in the garden centres.

Sadly, by year three in our home, the grand house next door was purchased and the old garden ripped out to make way for a pool. The pool-side facilities’ building now stands where the straggly poinsettia once did. I’ve planted a flame-red bougainvillea up my side now, and it too is in flower for Christmas, but somehow it’s not the archetypal festive flower that the poinsettia is.

But drive around Malta at Christmas time and you’ll find many small front yard gardens with poinsettias. They’ve become a popular frontage feature, and have quite taken hold, even in rougher waste grounds near residential areas. It is currently vying for our attention alongside myriad ‘Santas’ climbing in through balconies!

Come to the islands other times in the year though, and you wouldn’t notice the almost bare, somewhat ungainly branches of this overgrown bush cum small tree. It’s not very pretty when not in flower.

But today, let’s hear it for Malta’s splendid non-native flower as it’s often called the ‘Star of Bethlehem’. In its native Mexico and Guatemala it’s known as ‘Noche Buena’, meaning Christmas Eve. Although in Spain, it has shifted religious festival as it’s called “Flor de Pascua”, meaning Easter flower.

If you’ve a potted one on your hall table, then good luck in keeping it alive throughout the 12 days of Christmas. It takes skill to keep it moist, but not too moist, and not let it dry out. Mine has already yellowed and dropped leaves. So I mourn the loss of my neighbour’s poinsettia that never was to grace her garden at Christmas, as it once did mine…

Photo: Robert Simmons

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