Garden · 14 January 2026 · 5 min read
Orange season, from blossom to marmalade
Thirty-two trees, two kinds of orange and one very old recipe. A year in the ersa.
Taroudant has grown oranges for longer than anyone can say, and the trees in our garden are part of that story. Some are sweet, for juice. Most are bitter, the Seville kind, too sour to eat and perfect for everything else.
March: the blossom
In March the garden turns white and the scent fills the house so completely that guests ask whether we've been burning something. We gather the fallen blossom each morning and Malika distils it into orange-flower water, which ends up in pastries, in tea and on your pillow.
December to February: the fruit
The bitter oranges ripen through the winter. Picking happens in the early morning, before the sun reaches the beds, into palm baskets that have been in the house longer than we have.
The marmalade
Malika's marmalade is thick, dark and barely sweet, cooked slowly in a copper pan with a strip of cinnamon. It's on the breakfast table every day, and guests who ask nicely leave with a jar.
Written at Riad Al Ersa, Taroudant. Questions about anything here? Reception knows.
