My latest pregnancy craving? Mandarins.

Pros: Sweet, seedless, easy-peel ‘Satsuma’ mandarins are in season! I can buy them on my way home from a roadside stall near here for just $3/kg. They are divine. I could eat a whole bag in one go. Mum’s tree is also laden – she filled up my fruit bowl with even more mandarins this weekend.

Cons: Fresh citrus gives me chronic heartburn at the moment. I only have to look at a mandarin and my chest hurts. I’m chewing through antacid tablets almost as quickly as I’m chewing through the citrus. Ah well, not too many days to go now!

(But I have to admit, I a’m getting a bit tetchy about the state of my garden. Not being able to bend over is a definite disadvantage, but luckily Mum came to the rescue yesterday and put in a few punnets of cauliflowers, spinach, red-stemmed silverbeet and spring onions for me. This afternoon I also sowed a packet of ‘Dwarf Early Green’ broad beans, a packet of ‘Wiltshire Ripple’ sweet peas and prepared two dozen elderberry cuttings for the edible hedgerow I’m planning in our orchard. Now I just have to bribe my husband to mow the orchard so we can plant the 200 or so spring bulbs I’ve bought to go under the apple trees…)

Photo credit: Capay Satsuma Organic Mandarins