Tidbit of the day. Do you know where the OJ you drank for breakfast really came from? The fruit of the Citrus sinensis is called sweet orange to distinguish it from that of the Citrus aurantium, the bitter orange. The orange is a hybrid, possibly between pomelo (Citrus maxima) and mandarin (Citrus reticulata), cultivated since ancient times The orange first grew in the wild in southern China, and was eaten before the year 2000 B.C. Arab traders brought the orange to India and the Near East before the 9th century, Sailors used to plant orange trees along their trade routes to prevent “Scurvy”, which is caused by a lack of vitamin “C” . On his second voyage in 1493, Christopher Columbus brought the seeds of oranges, lemons and citrons to Haiti and the Caribbean. They were introduced in Florida (along with lemons) in 1513 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, and were introduced to Hawaii in 1792. A single mutation in 1820 in an orchard of sweet oranges planted at a monastery in Brazil led to the navel orange, also known as the Washington, Riverside or Bahia navel. A single cutting of the original tree was then transplanted to Riverside, California in 1870, creating a new market worldwide. In 2010, 68.3 million tons of oranges were grown worldwide, particularly in Brazil, and in California and Florida Today, the United States is the world’s biggest producer of oranges, harvesting some 220 million boxes a year!
Posted on: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 15:23:29 +0000
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