The Oranges

I love oranges. They just hit the spot in the winter for me. Maybe because it's about 80 degrees in the winter here and it's nice and refreshing. I have a hard time buying oranges from the grocery store since I've had an orange tree in my yard for most of my life. Those ones at the store are watery and gross. I was a little disappointed with our orange tree this year. We didn't get a whole lot of oranges, so we ended up getting a bunch of blood oranges from my in-laws. Their orange tree seemed to have no problem this year. I'm thinking it might have been a building year for our tree, since I cut it back a bit. When spring hit, it blossomed like crazy. There might have been more blossoms than leaves, but I can't be sure. All I know is that right now there are swarms of bees in the backyard, taking care of all the blossoms.

Since I didn't get my fill of oranges this winter, we ended up buying a bunch last weekend. I know it's late in the season for oranges, but I couldn't resist. We had just run a 5k and were driving home, taking our usual route that takes us by cows and donkeys and llamas. Before we drove by the donkey, we saw a sign for a ranch selling oranges. (All of these animals live around the orange groves) We had heard about this place from friends so we decided to stop by and check it out. We ended up getting 20 pounds of oranges for $5. And they are delicious. They taste as good or better than the ones from our tree. Needless to say, I was impressed.

If you're in town, you should check them out. I don't remember the name of the ranch, but they usually sell on Saturdays and they have signs out. It's on Johnston between Soboba and Lake. They sell baked goods and marmalade too. We've been eating our oranges like crazy and have only gone through about a quarter of the bag. Not bad for $5.