Woman in the Middle

While at least some of you nurse your “too much food” coma today after yesterday’s Super Bowl, I just wanted to mention that vexing problem I deal with at this time of year: oranges! Yes, my full-sized red navel orange tree is once again gifting us with oranges galore and I need to get rid of them! Three bags of oranges went away yesterday on top of the five or so bags that have gone away already. This has not made a dent in our orange situation.

As you drive past an orange grove at fifty miles an hour those orange trees look all green and soft, like they wouldn’t hurt a fly. Well, in real life getting those oranges off the tree can be a real battle, leaving you scratched and blooded. There are thorns and little dead twigs that are just waiting for a person to try to reach into the tree to pick an orange. Those throns and twigs reach out (I swear they do!) and do their best to try to make a scratch or two.

On the plus side, because my tree produces red navel oranges. not the regular ones,  I can usually give the oranges away, even to the many folks around me who have their own citrus trees. Today I once again do battle with the tree try to make a dent in the number of oranges I have. Anyone (who lives near by) want any?

Writing this post has made me wonder where the red navel comes from. This fruit is also known as the Cara Cara navel. It is believed to be a cross between the Washington navel and the Brazilian Bahia navel, but the aren’t certain. It was discovered at the Hacienda de Cara Cara in  Valencia, Venezuela in 1976, They  did not enter the U.S consumer produce market until the late 1980s.