I'm sure I'm one of the many whose left with dozens or gazillions of mandarin orange leftovers from CNY. When I was small I used to love mandarin oranges I'm always eyeing on the wooden carton of teochew mandarin orange that my parents buy for the New Year. One carton for prayers and giving away as buah tangan leaving not many for own consumption. I think they comes in sizes of 112,96,72 or 56 orange per carton. U see how crazy I was ? I can remember the # of orange per carton and boy.. the aroma of an opened carton, NICE !
30 years forward, I don't look forward to mandarins anymore. Buying a box for CNY was just for customary sake, to pai nien or as a polite gesture to return to visitors. The company gives us a carton each year. Damn kiamsiap co. all we get is a carton of mandarins and a box of mooncakes.
Anyways..... the first few days of CNY, mandarins exchanged always fresh and tangy. I'll have 1 or 2 or just a few more, the most. The rest are kept in the fridge till after new year and thrown away when they look old and shriveled..
I started making garbage enzymes last year and these mandarins comes in handy. Along with some mandarins that I've collected from my sis and my kaffir limes, I made a big box of garbage enzymes. Enough to share with my family and wash my 6 toilets.. !!!
Just follow the 1:3:10 rule (1kg brown sugar, 3kg fruit and 10 liters water) and leave to ferment for 4 months, you'll have bottles and bottles of enzymes and the residue makes excellent fertilizers !
See ? I do my part to recycle and pledge to live sustainably too :)
