Navel Oranges
Although oranges and other citrus fruit trees were purposely planted by sailors in exotic ports of call so that crewmen could have a ready source of scurvy-fighting vitamin C, that’s not how Navel Oranges got their name… and that would be “Naval” Oranges, if the former held any truth.
In actual fact, all modern Navel Oranges can trace their ancestry back to a single Selecta orange tree grown at a monastery near the city of Bahia in Brazil between 1810 and 1820. The tree was a chance mutation that produced fruit with a second, “conjoined twin” orange at their distal ends. Where the second fruit poked out from the first, a navel-like opening appears. Navel Oranges are seedless and are therefore propagated from grafted cuttings. As such, all modern Navel Oranges are clones of the original tree that lived two centuries ago… and in a sense, lives on today!
Orange You Glad You’re Vegan?
We don’t know exactly (heck, not even remotely) what kind of orange this is but sometimes it’s better not to have too much information… or in this case, ANY info. All we can say for certain is this fugly fruit was fondled & photographed at the Studio City Farmers’ Market in Los Angeles, California, on May 24th of 2011. Is it time for yet another remake of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers?
Cara Cara Oranges
The sweet-tasting and early maturing Cara Cara Orange is a relatively recent addition to the Amazing Orange roster, having been discovered in 1976 at the Hacienda Cara Cara in Venezuela. This eye-catching orange’s appealing pink fruit is the serendipitous result of a chance crossing of a Washington Navel and a Brazilian Bahia Navel orange. Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?
These days Cara Cara Oranges are mainly in Venezuela but growers in South Africa and the San Joaquin Valley of California have also had encouraging success cultivating this fruit. Besides their pleasingly pink interiors, Cara Cara Oranges are low in acid making them ideal for use in dairy-based recipes such as sorbets and smoothies.
