Do you know the difference between bitter orange and sweet orange, apart from the taste? The answer, the children of the nursery school of the Park will know it from now on rather well for the older ones.

The director of the school, Fabienne Péri, located on boulevard de Belgique, organized an educational workshop at the beginning of the week led by the staff of the technical services of the city of Monaco, in charge of harvesting the oranges, and the teachers of the school establishment. The latter accommodates 173 children.

During the collection, the agents were responsible for explaining to the small groups of children passing through the difference between the orange that is tasted at the table and that which is cited among the 559 sour oranges of the principality. But also, with the naked eye, the simple way to recognize one from the other.

A sour treat

The children did not leave a crumb of the explanations on the sidewalk and listened with great attention to the proposals of the professionals.

Nothing was left to chance and no unanswered questions during this discovery session in which everyone finally got involved. The difference in shape – oval for the bitter, darker, and round and lighter , for the soft – or even the difference of the stems of one and the other have been explained in an exciting way.

Thus, quite quickly, both children and adults understood that the stem of the sweeter orange had only one leaf and no thorn, while the stem of the bitter orange had a double leaf, the smaller of which was called a petiole. Even for the youngest – up to 3 years old – the difference was quickly understood!

The tasting during the workshop did not fail to provoke its share of smiles and grimaces.

For some children, this workshop will also be an opportunity to discover how jam (or marmalade) is made using the bitter oranges collected.

At École du Parc, nothing is left to chance and everything is transformed as much as possible into a teaching aid.