All posts in Fruit Facts

I’ve received many letters from customers asking about how we handle fruit between the time it’s picked and the time it leaves on trucks for nationwide distribution. When the fruit comes in from the groves in field boxes, some of it may have a slightly sooty appearance for look dirty. After all, it’s been hanging outside for months! So, usually the first step is cleaning. For cleaning, the fruit is loaded onto a conveyor belt that moves it along through the processing. Overhead are fine-spraying spigots dispensing soap and water that wash and rinse the fruit. Next, the belt moves…

1. The peel of an orange has the most Vitamin C. Even if you don’t enjoy eating the peel, a medium orange has about 66 mg. of Vitamin C, which is 100% of the recommended daily allowance. 2. To keep that Vitamin C while cooking with citrus, take care not to overcook. Add the citrus as late as possible when boiling ingredients. 3. Besides overcooking, don’t use copper utensils when cooking citrus as they will also destroy the Vitamin C. 4. Citrus loses very little Vitamin C during packaging, shipping or home storage. Take a little care when cooking and…

Have you ever gone onto the internet and searched random key words that pop into your head? Well, it is interesting what you will find when you think of broad topics such as the word citrus. Many people think of citrus and think of the family of fruits such as oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits, tangerines, mandarins, pomelos and the hundreds of hybrids that fall into the citrus family of fruits. But there is so much more associated with citrus then one might imagine. There are hundreds of pages that come up including citrus themed restaurants, the university, the city and…

So you’re looking to plant and care for citrus trees. Well, depending on the condition of the trees you already have and where you live, this should be a pretty simple task. First off, if you’re just beginning your citrus garden, you will need to pick out the type of citrus fruit you’d like to plant. Citrus trees are definitely great picks because they are subtropical, fruitful and evergreen. One thing you should look for in a citrus tree is its hardiness to cold weather – that’s if you live in a state where there is frost and snow. You…

Clementines are certainly a popular fruit when it comes to United States fruit consumption, and probably even more so then any of its mandarin orange cousin. This said, how is it relevant or marketable to include clementines in social media? Well, apparently important! One of the ‘Clementine’ Food and Beverage page on Facebook has nearly 8,000 fans on it! Here people have uploaded photos and talked about their love of Clementines, I guess this is what social media is really all about; finding people who love the same things you do and sharing it. But then again there is the…

Clementines have been called the crown jewel of the citrus world. These tiny oranges are used in everything from salads and sauces to preserves. Clementines are a specialty breed of orange that is only available for a couple of months out of the year. Many people will make preserves or cook sauces that can be frozen with these rare fruits so that they can enjoy the Clementines all year round. These tiny bright orange fruits are known for their sweetness and their bright orange color. Clementines have only been in grown for the US for around a hundred years and…

When people think of fruit shopping, they rarely consider the possibility that someone could mail fruit, but for those wishing to try new flavors, exotic mail order fruit may be the way to go. Citrus fruits, such as oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, honeybells (a cross between a tangerine and grapefruit), temples, and tangelos can be shipped much easier than some of the softer fruits like peaches or pears, and mail order fruit may be the way to go to get hold of fruits that are difficult to get in your local grocer. Citrus fruits in particular aren’t commercially feasible to raise…

Florida oranges are the best loved oranges in the world, but do you know why? There are a lot of things about Florida oranges and Florida citrus fruits like tangerines and grapefruit that you may not know. Florida oranges and grapefruit are the most popular Christmas fruit gifts, along with delicious Honeybells, and you still have plenty of time to give Florida oranges for the holidays this year. Here are some answers to the most frequently asked questions about Florida oranges that you may not know: Will my Florida citrus gifts arrive in time for the holidays? Yes, if you…