Orange
In the Bajo Andarax, orange trees form a green ribbon at the foot of the dry hills. Gádor has grown that identity for some 150 years; Alhama shares the valley's citrus history.
The orange has a landscape-deep anchor in the Andarax that provincial statistics alone do not show. The Junta once documented 554 hectares of orange groves in the Bajo Andarax, alongside greenhouses and mandarin trees. In Gádor, the town presents the fruit as an economic backbone in place for around a century and a half, and its Día de la Naranja turns that farming history into a popular festival every winter.
The valley should not be mistaken for the whole of Almería's production: a Junta study distinguishes two citrus basins — the Almanzora, larger and more commercial, and the Andarax, a fabric of many small farms. The latter held all the province's recorded area of Castellana orange, a traditional variety that struggled against the Navel groups. The local juice chain, built around the SAT Cítricos del Andarax and the bottling plant of the García Carrión group, completes the picture.
The season runs from late autumn to spring depending on the variety: this is the valley's winter fruit, when the terraces fill with orange spheres against the grey of the sierra. The emblem is that of the Alhama–Bajo Andarax corridor — a dense, green irrigated vega set between mineral slopes — not a protected municipal designation.
Varieties
- Castellana, a traditional variety documented in the Andarax
- Navel group, the provincial majority
Season
The orange vega of the Andarax
Between Gádor and the villages of the middle Andarax, a band of irrigated orange trees follows the river, cutting against the badlands and bare flanks of the Sierra de Gádor: dense green on the valley floor, stony relief all around — the exact counterpoint to the surrounding dry land.
