My three kids are all obsessed with eating mandarins. One day we’ll have our own mandarins growing in our backyard, but for now we just buy lots! Usually the kids want more than one mandarin per sitting, so I’m always left with a lot of sweet-smelling mandarin skins.
It seems such a waste to throw them in the bin, and they can’t be composted. Today, I asked all three kids to put their skins into a bowl for me, so I could cut them into small pieces with scissors. (Missy Nine would’ve loved doing this, but she was too busy eating).
After this, I laid them flat on a tea towel in my studio. It’s important that they be kept in a dry room…
Once they’ve dried out thoroughly, I’ll be using some of the batch for my pot-pourri creations and some to store in an airtight jar in the kitchen. Dried mandarin peel is delicious for giving an Asian flavour to soups and chicken. You can also make a tea from it.
It would’ve been such a shame to waste something so beautiful…
Good on you for making use of something most people would not think twice about throwing away.
I recently tried to make “candied peel” using a blend of mandarin and orange skins. It involved sitting them in brine for a few days, then boiling them in a sugar syrup and drying in the oven. It was a dismal failure, there was still too much bitterness in the skins, but I’m determined to keep trying! Maybe I will make some pot pourri instead
Hi Christie! I think it’s great you tried the candied peel anyway, it’s better to try something like that than to just throw it away:) And it does sound yummy. Apparently this dried peel is worth a lot of money in some countries where mandarins are scarce.
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Clever use with the potpourri. Why is it that they can’t be composted?
Hi! We, too get through lots of mandarin/satsuma/clementine peel, but I do compost it. Why should I not? Had never heard that I shouldn’t stick it in the compost with all the other stuff – I don’t put in bread, or anything else cooked (that gets fed to the chickens if there should ever be anything left over!), but I always compost stuff like this. Alex x
Hi, liz and Alex! Well, it’s funny, when I got a compost bin a few years ago, the instructions said not to put citrus into it. But then I asked our gardener about it today (he’s awesome, he’s teaching us how to do it ourselves, as he gets us started) and he said the peels are fine, but not the flesh.
So there you go! I stand corrected, LOL.
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When i made cordial yesterday I actually zested some mandarine peel in there for something different
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Interesting. I might have a go at making the mandarin peel potpourri, we’ve got heaps of mandarins being eaten here also.
Oddly reading this post has brought back vivid memories of childhood Christmases. My mum used to make candied orange peel at Christmas time and dip half in chocolate. Now I wonder how she did it all in the heat and humidity of a Queensland Christmas.
That would be delicious, Muffin Monster:)
That is a pretty amazing effort on your mum’s part, Marita!
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I’ll definitely be trying this! Lots of mandarins eaten here and it looks easy for the kids to join in. Citrus is a problem – our budgies won’t touch it so it always ends up thrown out.
It would be so easy for the kids to join in, Deb! The only reason my kids didn’t is because they were hoofing down their mandies, LOL
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