How to turn those Cara Caras, lemons, and kalamansi into vinaigrettes, pasta sauces, marmalades, and more.

It can be tempting, at this particular stage of winter, to throw your hands up at the idea of seasonality and just buy anything that’s alluring and green and hydroponically grown at the supermarket. But this might mean missing out on the last few great squeezes of citrus season, with all of its sweet, sour, gently bitter dimension.

With a crate of navel oranges, you can enjoy a few weekends’ worth of freshly squeezed orange juice (perfect for a thick layer of fluff in a Garibaldi, too), a competition-worthy batch of marmalade, a pot of carnitas, and a jar of juicy, marinated canned cherry tomatoes. And you still might have a couple left for dessert. A few lemons can be transformed into a briny preserved lemon paste that will perk up any vinaigrette, a luxurious batch of Samin Nosrat’s tuna confit, and some really good panfried sardines. And this doesn’t even scratch the surface of all the grapefruits, Cara Caras, satsumas, mandarins, yuzus, and more that are just waiting to shine some light into your kitchen.

Even if you don’t live in a citrus-growing climate, there’s never been a better or easier time to mail-order citrus. While you’re at it, consider picking up a heavy-duty $17 citrus juicer (Anita Lo is a big fan of this one) so that you don’t waste a drop while you’re throwing together your next batch of lemon bars. You can even make the most of those spent hulls and make citrus stock—ready to add to your next highball or frozen cocktail at a moment’s notice. —Anna Hezel