Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Originating from a chance mutation in the Bahia region of Brazil, probably in the
early nineteenth century, the Washington was almost immediately recognized as one of the
world's best-tasting oranges, despite its temperamental growing habits and its relative lack
of juice. (In contrast, the Valencia, the dominant fruit of Florida, is extremely juicy, com-
posed of almost 50 percent juice, but the fruit's flavor is relatively undistinguished.) The
navel quickly spread around the world, being adopted in Paraguay, Spain, South Africa,
Australia and Japan.
Navels have been known for centuries in the Mediterranean. They are typified by a
"bellybutton" that appears at the flower end of the mature fruit. This is actually a small,
primitive secondary fruit embedded in the larger orange. Besides their flavor, navel or-
anges have several qualities to recommend them: they are frequently seedless, they are
relatively easy to peel and they have flesh that is firm rather than watery. When planted
in Florida, however, navels become coarse and granular. Furthermore, when the fruit is
juiced, a compound called limonin turns it bitter within half an hour. Increasingly, Florida
growers concentrated on producing juice from their Valencias and similar varieties, and
California growers concentrated more on fresh fruit. Today almost 97 percent of Florida's
oranges wind up in juice, and chances are good that you have never eaten a Florida or-
ange.
Florida's change from fresh to processed did not occur all at once, but over decades.
The clincher came in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when new processing technology al-
lowed the creation of frozen juice concentrate, which tasted better than canned juice. To
make frozen concentrate, the fruit is squeezed and the juice is heated to destroy enzymes
that might spoil its flavor. Then the juice is put in a vacuum extractor that evaporates out
most of the water. The concentrated juice (now containing roughly four times as much
sugar as fresh squeezed) is then frozen until needed. Finally, fresh juice is mixed back in
with the frozen, sometimes with extracted orange oil from the peel to reinforce the flavor.
In addition to Valencias and navels, the family of oranges includes other juicing vari-
eties; blood oranges, which have ruby-colored flesh and a raspberry-like flavor; and the
highly popular eating orange called the Cara Cara. A chance mutation found in 1976 on
a Washington navel in a Venezuelan orchard, the Cara Cara is a sweet, low-acid orange
whose flesh is a deep pinkish orange - close to the color of Ruby Red grapefruit.
