Orange Fail

A few years back I went to the farmer's market across from U.C.I. for the first time. I bought some navel oranges there from a vendor who no longer comes to that market. These redefined my conceptualization of the navel orange. These were the Platonic ideal of the navel orange. Sweet and so full of juice that they soaked your shirt when you peeled them. The vendor has stopped coming to the U.C.I. Farmer's market for whatever reason, and I've been trying to find suitable replacement oranges ever since with mixed success. While my farmer's market produce purchases are usually superior to chemically-ripened waxy desiccated things at the super market that bear only a passing resemblance to fruit, I've yet to find a consistent grower who can deliver fruit that good.

If my hands stay dry after peeling your navel orange, you fail at growing navel oranges. I'm so tired of dried-up oranges with flesh that is the taste and consistency of packing material. Juice content, people, juice content.

Navel oranges are sterile hybrids, which means they can only be grown by grafting, which means that all navel oranges are genetically identical. Barring any delicious mutations like the Cara-Cara navel (which is the best kind of navel), all navel orange trees are genetically the same. So the pronounced difference in quality between an orange like a ball of uncooked rice and an orange that is dripping with sweetness must all be in the application of agricultural techniques. Nurture over nature. Something to think about.