Here is the blurb from the Amazon page. It’s been a few decades since I read the book, but I remember enjoying it (and that’s about it…). A common reaction is “I can’t believe I read a book and oranges, and that I really liked it.” You can use the “Look Inside” feature on the Amazon page to get a taste of it.
A classic of reportage, Oranges was first conceived as a short magazine article about oranges and orange juice, but the author kept encountering so much irresistible information that he eventually found that he had in fact written a book. It contains sketches of orange growers, orange botanists, orange pickers, orange packers, early settlers on Florida’s Indian River, the first orange barons, modern concentrate makers, and a fascinating profile of Ben Hill Griffin of Frostproof, Florida who may be the last of the individual orange barons. McPhee’s astonishing book has an almost narrative progression, is immensely readable, and is frequently amusing. Louis XIV hung tapestries of oranges in the halls of Versailles, because oranges and orange trees were the symbols of his nature and his reign. This book, in a sense, is a tapestry of oranges, too―with elements in it that range from the great orangeries of European monarchs to a custom of people in the modern Caribbean who split oranges and clean floors with them, one half in each hand.
Forget those exotics… navels, in season… around now… well selected (heavy in hand) from a good source. Pure heaven. Similar for red grapefruit (not an orange so I mispost I know)
Ha yes, to many if not all. But I am a NYer… superior to many in many ways (fire away) but not to SoCcaliforn’s for produce… I get the best of what I can… but it is only so good.
Envious! Duncan grapefruits are my absolute favorite, but so hard to find. I used to order them from Mixon’s in Bradenton Florida, but I’m not sure they sell them anymore.
Another Sumo fan here - yes they’re expensive, but not available for very long so I splurge when they’re here.
For apples, a new variety for me this year has been Wild Twist and it’s great. Very crisp, sweet but with an underlying tartness that keeps it from being too cloying.