Hey everyone!
Picture this. You are sitting on your comfortable bed, wrapped up in soft blankets. The rain is pounding on your window and outside it’s dark and freezing cold. Inside though, you are cosy and warm. Ahh, winter. Some of you might be nodding your heads along with me (I love winter), but others might be shuddering and thinking let’s move right along please. Spring and… ahh, summer.
I’ve got a question for you- what is an amazing food to eat in winter?

 

Hmm, hot chocolate? Soup? Something hot? Well, yes. Those are good answers. But I’m thinking of something else, something that you might not have thought of.

Citrus fruits. Yup, you heard me.

 

In winter, sadly, many people get the common cold and are more prone to sicknesses. But, there are ways you can prevent the cold from invading your precious body. (This isn’t a cold proof magic medicine, of course people can still get sick, but it helps.) Hashem kindly made the citrus fruits; oranges, lemons, grapefruits, tangerines, etc. grow best near the winter time and make their ways to the stores right before winter sets in.

 

And what’s so good about that? Citrus fruits have vitamin C (most kids know about this one!) which helps fight infections including the common cold. What do you think of that?

 

Now, guess what I just finished eating about ten minutes ago? A tangerine. And not just any tangerine, but one that was picked straight from our tree! In the area that we live in, many people have fruit trees in their backyard. Our backyard is full of… citrus trees! We have lemon, orange, yellow grapefruit, tangerine and shesek. Shesek is a special Israeli fruit which I’m not even sure of how to say it in English… but no, shesek is not a citrus fruit. (It looks a little like an apricot and it only grows for one month a year. This year not many of them grew.) Here in Israel we have to separate trumos and maasros before you eat the fruit. (Although you can eat it outside without separating.)
I love our fruit trees. It’s an amazing miracle to see the fruit grow slowly, turning from small, hard and green little balls into bright yellows and oranges.

So, next time you are in the supermarket, stock up on those citruses! They’ll do you good!
Maital

P.s. This very minute it started to rain! Yay!!
P.p.s.- here are a couple of things you can do with citrus fruits- orange/grapefruit juice, lemon/orange cake (not too healthy but you can make it healthy…), I know this sounds weird but you can freeze slices of orange (or any fruit really), you can tell I’m a fan of frozen things… and of course- plain! Plain is the best- no doubt about it!