Spremuta Day in Sorrento 2025
What Are You Doing With All the Oranges? 5 Top Things to do with Sorrento Oranges
Sorrento Food Tours Oranges
If you’ve been along the Sorrento or Amalfi Coast from September to April you’ve seen street lined trees heaving with oranges and pergola covered groves of oranges and lemons. There’s even ‘Orange Street’…via degli aranci.
Probably one of the most asked questions on tour ‘what do you do with all the oranges’ besides ‘can people pick them?’ And the answer is still NO. haha It was described to me as….it’s like someone walking into your house and rummaging through your fridge without asking.
For starters, there are several varieties, most on the streets are a bitter style orange and off the scooter smoked streets maybe something you don’t want to eat but also can damage the branches. The rest can be used to make marmalade, the tasty liquor ‘arancia’ the sister to the famous limoncello and then there is the Arancia Bionda Sorrentina, the Sorrento Blonde Orange.
The Sorrento blonde orange is one of the traditional fruits of the Sorrento peninsula since the 1300’s, yes the oranges were there first -before the lemons. It’s a large, very juicy orange perfect for roadside juices, aromatic syrups and candied fruits for all the delicious desserts, ie, panetone, sfogliatella, or just dipped in chocolate. The local blonde orange was prevalent until the 1950’s when unfortunately the agricultural sector took a back seat to tourism.
Sorrento Food Tours Mandarancia- mandarino orange
Thank goodness we have organizations, farmers, locals and a bonus if you can get the political sector involved who care to preserve cultural, historical, and multicultural events. This year we have all of them connecting for a special event hosting the 2025 Spremuta “Squeeze” Day, held February 7, 2025.
The Slow Food Organization is a global movement acting together to ensure good, clean and fair food for all. The Sorrento Blonde Orange is even on the Slow Ark of Taste list, a list created by Slow Food International and Slow Food Italy. The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity is the operational body for the protection of food biodiversity. Protecting and bringing back long lost forgotten foods that belong to the cultures, history and traditions of the entire planet!
Fortunately, we have the Sindaco of Sorrento, the Mayor Massimo Coppola, local organizations, Penisolaverde and Slow Food Sorrento and Capri hosting the Spremuta Day event at the beautiful historic Villa Fiorentino with the participation of local 4th and 5th grade students.
Bags of oranges are collected passed out to locals and used to promote in a fun education way about nutrition, tastings, games, label recognition (who knew it would come to kids having to reading labels), a local farmers explaining the history and agricultural techniques, and then….let the games begin! The kids give it go with a juice competition, squeezing their fresh oranges into juice by hand.
Spremuta Day Sorrento 2025 Photo credit- Slow Food Sorrento & Capri
Spremuta Day is fun but hopefully has a huge impact on starting the education young, nutrition, environmental impact and not buying fake orange stuff from a carton for starters. Did I mention how marvelous the orange blossoms smell????
So my top 5 things to do with any of the Sorrento Oranges
Spritz Time! Sorrento Food Tours
1. Fresh squeezed juice at most bars in Piazza Tasso- love those cool machines that slice them in front of you
2. Candied peel and dipped in chocolate- dark chocolate to be precise
3. Garnish for Campari, Aperol Spritz or why not an Arancia Spritz ( a garnish I always eat- are you supposed to eat garnish)
4. Fresh shaved fennel and orange salad- good olive oil, sea salt and a little spring onion
5. Beautiful table decor that I can eat and make the house smell amazing all at once…that’s 8 things, you’re welcome ))
See you in Sorrento – come with us on tour and visit the lemon groves with lots of other fruit trees to see grazie!
Spritz Time! Lots of Spritz to Make! Sorrento Food Tours