Citrus, Citrus Everywhere

AZ Sweet Orange_optI am NOT a fan of being cold so I am constantly looking for things to be happy about in the winter.  One of my extreme pleasures is that citrus is ‘in season’ or ripe from November until I finish picking it in the spring.  Unlike peaches, citrus stores very nicely on the tree.
My foray into fruit trees started in ernest when I bought the Urban Farm in 1989, but I primarily planted stone fruit (any fruit with a pit in the middle) and pome fruit (apples and pears.)  Then about 5 years ago I got the citrus bug and started planting oranges like a madman.  I believe that fruit trees are like art.  You don’t buy art you don’t like, so why should you plant a fruit tree that you don’t like.  Using this theory I planted 14 navel orange trees in my front yard.  Well in reality they are not trees, they are more like a shrub standing no taller than 6 feet tall and I use them on the perimeter of my front yard as a fence.  It actually works really well.
One might ask why the heck I would plant so many navel oranges?  I love navels and in any given week when they are in season I can eat 20 or 30 pounds and THAT is a lot of oranges.  The nice thing about this particular winter is that my production is almost keeping up with my desire for them.  That makes me a very happy camper especially with the price of fruit these days.

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