Oranges

SE #4 – Oranges

Did you know that 7500 people faint due to heat exhaustion while harvesting oranges each year in Florida alone? Ok, I might have made that up, but I bet I have your attention now so I can tell you all about the foggy origins of the orange. I chose to investigate oranges because I noticed the increasing number of DU students, myself included, taking them from dining halls now that they have been conveniently placed on our way out the door. They serve as a great snack for in between classes and sometimes I eat them in the morning to postpone breakfast until I’ve finished my first class at 11 a.m. Much to my surprised the quality of these oranges is actually pretty high on the taste scale, but since I don’t know where these particular oranges are coming from I'm unsure of the actual quality. Of course it’s nothing like a fresh one right off the tree, but for Sodexo I’ll take it.

Why are the origins of the orange foggy? Because there is no set country where oranges came from. I of course checked Wikipedia for some background information on oranges and they don’t know either. On the oranges page Wikipedia uses the word “probably” to describe where the orange originated, as in probably from Southeast Asia. In another source I used the author wrote the oranges came from Asia, he just didn’t know specifically which part. The author tried to trace the roots of the orange back by examining where they came up in history. For example,

The Chinese mention them in their earliest writings; the word is Sanskrit: naranga. Some say they were grown in Mesopotamia; some say the Egyptians ate them; some say there are oranges in the Bible, but some say those are not oranges at all. The Romans got them from the Persians, and built the first greenhouses with sheets of mica to protect them: "orangeries." (Weinberger)

The list goes on and the only thing that we can be sure of is that there is no one spot where oranges just popped up. One of the main reasons we have oranges in the states is because Columbus brought them over on his second trip west to America.

            I'm going to fast-forward quite a bit now and focus more on the production aspect of the modern orange that we have all come to love.

Just after the Second World War, three scientists working in central Florida surprised themselves with a simple idea the resulted in the development of commercial orange-juice concentrate. A couple dozen enormous factories sprang out of the hammocks, and Florida, which can be counted on in most seasons to produce about a quarter of all the oranges in the world was soon putting most of them through the process that results in small, trim cans, about two inches in diameter and four inches high, containing orange juice that has been boiled to high viscosity in a vacuum, separated into several component parts, reassembled, flavored, and then frozen solid. (Mcphee 7)

Although this quote is very lengthy it describes in great detail how an orange becomes concentrate. I personally didn’t know that it was so complicated and that chemistry was involved with the formation of the new frozen substance that we can all buy at our local grocery stores. I don’t think this new bit of knowledge will impact my orange juice drinking habits because I usually try not to buy the concentrate since I’d rather not but the work into making it a juice.

            The relationship I’ve had with oranges goes back to when I was incredibly little. My grandma lives in Florida during the winter so each winter my family would travel down to see her and for about a week we could have the freshest orange juice I've ever tasted from a local citrus store called Albritton's. We could also pick clementines right off the vine from the tree she had growing in her backyard and eat them immediately. When I think or oranges I think of my loving grandma and all the times I've gone down to Florida to see her. Knowing how orange concentrate is made in no way impacts my relationship with oranges mainly because there is nothing inhumane about how oranges become concentrate. If I had researched something like chicken or beef maybe I would be hesitant to wolf down my next burger.

Works Cited

McPhee, John. Oranges,. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1967. Print.

Weinberger, E. (2009). Oranges & peanuts for sale. The Southern Review, 45(1), 148-IX. http://search.proquest.com/docview/206068909?accountid=14608