Ep 005: When Jeju Gives You Tangerines | Jeju Essentials

Ed (05:04)

what are some of the best seasons to get tangerines when you’re in Jeju?

Soraya (05:09)

it’s gonna start from at the end of October like November until at the end of February March. so I think the best season to see all of these Tangerine in the tree, it’s November. November would be the perfect time. But if you come like after Christmas, January

Soraya (05:31)

Sometimes, you know, in Jeju it’s snow a lot. So when you see those beautiful orange color tangerines in snowy places, it’s beautiful, beautiful.

Ed (05:35)

when you see all those tangerines plum and juicy on the trees, like, are we allowed to just take them and eat them?

Soraya (05:53)

Of course, no. But I mean.

Ed (05:55)

then how do we pick them? In the US, we have these things called U-pick farms where you can go harvest, pick for yourself blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and all those kinds of stuff. I think there’s something similar, right? In Jeju?

Soraya (06:11)

We do have like exactly same thing in Jeju. So usually you pay like five thousand won like three four dollar to get in for then for one hour you can eat those fresh tangerine you can eat them unlimited unlimited one hour unlimited tangerine buffet but you have to pick it first.

Ed (06:34)

Do you get a free toilet break?

Soraya (06:37)

it also counts in one hour.

Ed (06:39)

Okay. games on, like you go there and you harvest So you’re eating the, the harvest and also keeping some for later. Right.

Soraya (06:49)

Like usually they give us like one kilo per person.

Ed (06:52)

like, why would it be a better idea to like pick your own Tangerines and eat it versus buying it from the markets? Like, is there a difference in taste, quality, price? what’s the difference?

Soraya (07:05)

I think of course the taste is a lot better because when you buy it from the store it’s been a while after harvesting but when you just harvest and then eat it it’s so much better it’s lot more juicy You can see those trees and then you just have it. So it’s very authentic experience, I would say. And lots of families from mainland Korea, they like to do this tangerine picking experience with their children because they love this kind of activity.

Ed (07:27)

when I was in Jeju, at the airport, I saw people like carrying boxes of tangerines. I’m not sure if it was checked in or carry on, but a lot of Koreans actually carry that to the mainland. is it very expensive in the mainland? why bother? It seems like a lot of work to have to bring all that tangerines to the mainland. Like, is there a huge difference in savings or like why?

Soraya (07:46)

No, it’s similar. mean Jeju is a little bit cheaper. It’s a little bit cheaper because we can buy it from the farm. But I would just send it through the Taegbae

Ed (08:12)

Taegbae the delivery service, So then you’re doing three things when you go for tangerine picking. Number one, you’re picking the tangerines to eat. Number two, you’re picking the tangerine in the bag to take home. And then the third thing you’re doing is you are actually buying and shipping pre-packed tangerine boxes to the mainland.

Soraya (08:26)

Right, yes, I just wanted to say that my mom, she loves tangerine. So she’s like specialist for checking the taste of tangerine. And then she told me there are some differences between that tangerine that I send from the farm and then tangerine that she bought from the

Ed (08:48)

The supermarkets, yeah.

Soraya (09:01)

But she told me the one from

Ed (09:01)

that’s fascinating.

Soraya (09:02)

the farm, it’s a lot better.

Ed (09:04)

like, is it not psychosomatic? Like she because it’s from the farm, she goes like, it’s better. Okay.

Soraya (09:09)

Hahaha! I don’t think so. She’s very strict for the taste.

Ed (09:18)

Okay. Gotcha.

Ed (09:19)

I remember I did it once with my wife Michele and we ate but unfortunately I don’t really like tangerines so I ate a few but my wife just went crazy with it and then we filled our bags and I was like no we’re leaving in two days we have a lot of tangerines and so we gave them away so I guess one thing I would say is that if you are visiting Jeju

Ed (09:46)

for like three, four, five days and you want to do tangerine picking, I would suggest if the weather permits and it’s the right season, I suggest you do it early in your trip. That way you have the rest of your time to enjoy the tangerines. Sora I’ve heard you once told me that, the tangerine tree is also called the university tree. Why is that?

Soraya (10:11)

Right, because if you have a tangerine tree in Jeju farm, you can send your children to the university, meaning you can pay for the tuition fee for the uni for your children. So we call those tangerine tree as university tree because back in like until 1970, tangerine was really, really expensive. during Joseon dynasty, tangerine was for the king. Normal people could not have it like easily.

Ed (10:39)

think I remember seeing that about the university tree in the Tangerine Museum. That’s in the south, just near Seogwipo city, the southern city. It’s not a big museum, but all around it is like the Tangerine Orchard. So you can see in the right season, you actually see all the Tangerines on the tree. the museum itself, it’s not very big, but it does talks to you about the history of Tangerines the Tangerine Museum, I think it’s… If you have a car and you have some time and you’re already in Seogwipo city, think it’s a good stop if let’s say it’s raining and you want to like do something away from the rain. But I wouldn’t go there just for it. It’s quite…

Ed (11:23)

out of the way need a car to get there or a taxi. I’m glad I went. But that was a, it was exactly that. It was a rainy day. And so we had a car and we were in Seogwipo city. And so like, oh, what should we do today? It’s raining. Okay, let’s go to this museum. And it was, it was a great two hours. But if it’s a great weather, I’d rather just be. know, tangerines myself.