"VALENCIA ORANGE"

Fruit of the Month: Valencia Orange

We are well into our juiciest season yet! Valencia oranges have been ripening on the tree for the past few months and are now ripe and ready to be eaten!

Background and History

The Valencia orange is the most well known type of orange, mainly because they are the most common orange used in juice production. Valencia oranges account for the majority of United States’ citrus crop, including half of Florida’s total citrus production.

The Valencia orange is not usually eaten out-of-hand.  Only 20% of the total crop is sold as whole fruit, and the remainder is used for orange juice, extracts, and preserves.  The fruit has seeds and the flesh is filled with sweet, vibrantly colored juice.  The skin of the orange is usually thin and tough to peel. Valencia oranges are known as summer oranges because they are the only orange that is ripe during the summer.

The fruit can remain on the tree for more than 6 months after it first turns orange.  The fruit becomes sweeter the longer it is on the tree.  However, the longer the fruit stays in the sun, the rind can turn green again.  This process, known as regreening, is when the skin reabsorbs chlorophyll due to rising temperatures, giving the fruit a greenish complexion. While green skin often signifies unripe fruit, the quality of the fruit is unaffected.  The regreening can become even more confusing after the spring bloom when the tree carries two crops on the tree at one time.  The tree has both green and orange fruits on it, and it becomes difficult to distinguish between the two crops when the older fruit regreens and the newer crop begins to turn orange.

The Valencia orange is believed to be a descendant of a sweet orange variety grown in China.  Eventually, the orange was brought to Spain and was named after the prominent city of Valencia. The fruit was introduced to the United States in the 19th Century, but was not cultivated as a crop for almost a century.  The Valencia orange became an important part of the citrus industry in Southern California and paved the way for large citrus growing communities like Orange County.  The first Valencia orange groves were plated in Orange County in 1870 and soon the crop revolutionized Southern California’s agricultural business. By 1915, there were over 20,000 acres of orange groves in Orange County.

To read more about the history of citrus in Southern California, visit: http://www.californiacountry.org/features/article.aspx?arID=695

Types and Characteristics

There are at least 50 different varieties or hybrids of the Valencia orange.  The most common include Campbell, Delta and Midknight.  All three varieties ripen early and have very few to no seeds.

Harvesting

Valencia oranges are ready to harvest from February through October.  The fruit can hold on the tree and ripen for a long time, so the peak harvesting time is May-July.  Oranges can be harvested either by handpicking or by using fruit pickers.  When selecting ripe fruit, look for firm and heavy fruit with thin, smooth skin.  If the ground is soft around the base of the tree, you can shake some branches and collect the fruit that has fallen.  However, if the fruit is very ripe, you risk damaging and breaking the skin.

Our largest harvest of Valencia oranges is here! We will be harvesting at the Huntington Gardens in San Marino all summer long!  Come join us by visiting our events page:www.foodforward.org/events.

http://foodforward.org/2013/06/fruit-of-the-month-valencia-orange/