Navals and Valencias. Two Gifts of Our Valley.

My Valencia orange tree has both ripe oranges, and the upcoming bloom, most just getting ready to bloom.

What a gift we have, living in the San Joaquin Valley. And most especially, living in the citrus belt as I am fortunate enough to do

During the winter months, when colds are most likely, I try to eat at least a couple of oranges a day, sometimes more.  However, moderation is the way to enjoy them, as everybody knows who has eaten too many at one time, just because they taste so good. My body knows how to remind me to not eat more than one at a time, even though my taster says, "Have another one."

Several years ago, a friend of ours had planted an entire grove of Washington Naval trees.  He had a few trees left over, for they always order a few more than they need, and offered them to us to plant.

Every year, for the past thirty-five or forty years, these two trees have flourished, and produced many more oranges than we can eat. Even when I try to eat two oranges every day from around Christmas until the warm weather takes them off the tree, I cannot consume them all.  Neighbors and friends, all benefit from our productive trees.

This morning, after breakfast, I decided it was time to check out the Valencia tree in my back yard.  It is also loaded this year, but the sugar content doesn't rise high enough to keep the juice from being too tart.

When I stepped out the back door this morning, the cool of the morning air was laced with a hint of orange blossom.  What a perfume of nature. The local honey bee population is carefully checking for the first blooms to open.  As the picture shows, most are closed tightly.

Based on that delightful smell, I decided it was time to check the sugar content. This morning I squeezed a bowl of oranges into juice. My wife is the juice taster in our family.  I can drink it when it is pretty tart, but she has to have it much sweeter to be able to enjoy it. I took her a small sample when I was done.  Good news! The Valencia's are sugared well enough to make the juice quite enjoyable.