Florida Oranges – Nature’s Sunshine

By Lynn Thomas

Holding an orange is like having an orb of sunlight in your hand.

To this day, the memory of the color and the smell of the oranges and other tropical fruits – picked then eaten right from the tree — makes my mouth water.

My mother’s slow and deliberate peeling and dividing the fruit would sometimes make the anticipation seem unbearable.

Then with an orange slice nestled in my hand, I would pop it into my mouth and bite into the sweet (sometimes tart) fruit slice. What a wonderful delight.

Add in the ocean’s view, the briny breeze and the sunshine and you can’t imagine the delight of eating oranges on the beach.

Natural Beauty and Abundance of Briny Breezes Florida
Besides the oranges, we enjoyed the delicious natural offerings of bananas, grapefruit and other tropical fruits as well.

We would go to the groves weekly. We would sometimes travel to a grove in Boca Raton or as far north as Indian River area, but most often we’d frequent the ones located along Lawrence Road in west Boynton Beach (which is now mostly residential neighborhoods).

There we would purchase oranges, grapefruits, bananas and juice.

Sometimes we’d get taffy or other treats as well.

Sometimes we would tour the grove and pick the fruit ourselves.

Many of the Brinyites enjoyed creating tropical recipes using oranges, calamondins, seagrapes, etc. for
pies, jams and marmalade; and oranges, limes, and other fruits for tropical drinks.

Seagrape Jelly Recipe:
Wash fruit and remove stems and leaves.
Pour through cloth jelly bag.
Put 4 cups juice back in kettle.
Add 4 cups sugar and keep stirring.
Boil rapidly to 228 degrees F.
Pour into sterilized jelly jars and seal.
(Recipe Source: Wild Edibles by Marian Van Atta from Amazon.com )

Do you have tropical recipes?
Please share them in the comments section below