The past few years I've been buying high priced oranges from the Orange Shop. They cost considerably more than the grocery store but well worth it when you eat them. Peeling them your hand gets soaked from the juice, like holding a saturated sponge. I get them mid to late December and eat one a day.
The difference is basically a matter of how long they remain on the tree. A lot of produce is harvested (too) early and expected to ripen on the grocers shelves (or, "artificially" ripened).
We leave the fruit on the tree until it *must* be removed. E.g., if we expect a long, hard freeze and can't reasonably expect the fruit to remain unaffected; or, if the tree is setting out blossoms for the next crop (picking fruit later than that cuts down on the size of the next crop *and* risks damaging the fragile blossoms -- which ends up costing you future fruit).
The longer the fruit stays on the tree -- and the warmer it is during that period -- the more sugars it produces. E.g., our lemons and limes are *sweet* instead of *tart* (though you'd still not want to EAT one!)
Last year was warm for a VERY long time. So, the fruit was extraordinarily sweet. SWMBO picks one a day to eat off the Navel starting as late as she can discipline herself (recalling that later == sweeter). She continues to do this every day (pick one in the afternoon for the next morning) until something requires the tree to be harvested (cold/blossoms).
Then, she stocks up the refrigerator (BOTH vegetable drawers plus the bottom shelf), puts a few in an ornamental bowl to leave out for the next week and gives a few to "select" friends. The balance (of these Navels) get blended with the Valencia's -- which are picked in ~February and juiced (they aren't a good "eating orange"; the Navel's aren't a good *juicing* orange -- but are sugary sweet compared to the "orange tasting" Valencia's).
The blood oranges (before the tree got wacked) come even later in the year -- sometimes you can stretch it into April. But, those are off limits: "mine"! And, are strictly juiced (if you can get used to the color, the juice is absolutely delightful!)
The "fresh" Navels will carry through until June-ish (this year they ran out at the end of June) while the juice will carry through most of the year (I think she ran out of "home squeezed" juice a few weeks ago).
The juice from the lemon tree will support my "tea" habit for most of the year (fresh frozen -- in 8 oz "vitamin bottles" so I don't have to worry about pasteurization). The lime juice is simply too much to deal with -- the old tree would produce several hundred tennis-ball sized limes (not the golf ball size you find in stores). We never found a use for that many so would bring grocery bags full of limes to the "laundry" at the local hospital (the Mexicans working there loved to suck on limes)
ObTrivia: many mexicans will have acid-etched front teeth. This is a consequence of taking a slice/wedge of citrus (e.g., lime) and holding it in their mouths between their lips -- the flesh of the fruit against their front teeth -- as they "nurse" the juices from it!
People are willing to pay extra for coffee made from beans that have passed through an elephant ('black ivory'). So why not for juice from navels (or tangerines, clementines, mandarins, etc.)?
We don't have an elephant.
Ummm, I guess I left myself wide open for that one.
What I should have said is that people are willing to pay, sometimes a lot, for food that tastes different, let alone better. So why doesn't anyone juice mandarins or other specialty citrii?
What leads you to believe that nobody juices mandarins/clementines, blood oranges or other "specialty citrii"?
Best fruit juice I ever tasted was freshly squeezed Gewurtztraminer grapes. Unfortunately, the winery preferred to ferment it rather than sell it.
It's the civets (Kopi Luwak), not the elephants that matter to coffee drinkers :=)
Sure. Maybe at an upscale mall, or at a Hollywood party. I was thinking more along the lines of Tropicana, where people are already paying extra for the shipping of time-limited heavier non-condensed juice. The closest thing is the Tangerine-added Tropicana.
It's even more expensive because you need to find unchewed beans.
A few seconds on Google and I'm looking at an image of a bottle of Tropicana Clementine juice.
Takes a lot of fruit to get a little juice. Juice oranges are bred and watered to produce a lot of juice per item fruit.
It's probably not cost effective.
Other oranges do taste better. Some people will pay more. Probably not everyone will pay as much for the better tasting juice to the point where it can compete with Valencia, but there should be a niche market enough just for the ostentasios.
Excellent! Now how am I to convince my local supermarket that my whining alone is sufficient for them to stock it? I guess I'll have to await the Amazon drones.
Sorry, I couldn't resist!
[I was originally going to complain about the effort to CLEAN UP AFTER that "processing plant"]You can buy Blood Orange *soda*, IIRC (ick).
The problem is just one of economics.
How big is the market? How efficiently can you produce the product? (remember, it's perishable so if you can't sell it, you've LOST it!)
What does it cost to make a (FANCY!) hamburger in your kitchen? What does it cost to BUY that same hamburger from a (decent) restaurant?
[I cringe when I see a "bowl of spaghetti" listed for $20. Sheesh! Do I get a BJ with that??]Our Valencia yields about 7-10G of juice each year. The oranges are tiny (about 3" dia) but contain a lot of juice, per fruit. By contrast, the Navels may be 4 or 5" in diameter, yield a similar amount of juice BUT A LOT OF PULP.
Do you sell that juice -- the same general "yield" as the Valencia -- at the price that folks are willing to pay for Valencia (blended) juice? Or, sell the *fruit* (requiring less processing) at a higher price? E.g., $1+/orange (when OJ is selling for $3 per "half gallon")
I bake a lot. Most of these things are relatively inexpensive to make -- just a lot of *time* (no doubt less if you did it commercially). For a few dollars, I can make ~20 dozen cookies. Go to the bakery and you're paying TWICE what you would for prime cuts of STEAK!
Notice how few (good) bakeries remain? Folks don't, in general, want to PAY for "yummy"; they'll SETTLE for mass produced, cardboard cookies cuz they're so much "more affordable".
I bring sweets, etc. to parties around the holidays as my contribution (so host doesn't have to do as much, etc.). Invariably, they get whisked away and the "store bought stuff" gets served, instead. Yeah, the guests might appreciate mine more, but they'll be happy with the host's offering, too! (hosts, not being stupid, then opt to save the best for themselves!)
Would you pay $30+/G for Navel OJ? Maybe double that for Blood OJ?
It's an entirely different structure to the fruit. Juice a lemon, lime or Valencia and you essentially end up with juice and rind. Juice a Navel and you end up with juice, rind and a sh*tload of pulp! Many folks seem to treat pulp as something EVIL -- to be avoided (we have a hard time finding the "Most Pulp" varieties of store-bought OJ when SWMBO needs to supplement our harvest).
Imagine juicing (store-bought) LIMES. I suspect they just put them through a GRINDER as there's so little "meat" there compared to the even smaller amount of juice!
+1
A couple of data-points:
- a dozen "organic" lemons, $19.95
- 2 lbs "fresh" lemons, $15.48
- 6 lbs "organic fresh" lemons, $16.68
We harvested ~90 pounds of lemons from our (tiny, not yet mature) tree. So, that's "worth" $696.60 (45*2 lbs), $250.20 (15*6 lbs) or $299.25 (~15 dozen) at those "market rates"
This reduced to ~3.5G of juice:
- 96 oz (3 qt) lemon juice, $12.95
So, juiced, they're "worth" about $60 -- regardless of how much sweeter they might be!
Aside from the zest (how the heck much zest can you actually *use*??), what's the difference between the "whole" lemons and their extracted juice?
I just juice my own oranges; it's easy enough and powered juicers are pretty inexpensive.
Then again, I have a naval orange tree in the back yard, currently heavy with a couple gross of oranges, just reaching ripeness.
I don't think most folks understand the difference in taste between "fresh picked", "store bought (fruit)" and "juiced".
And that *before* you introduce the different varieties available!
(e.g., we had to pick from three different blood orange varieties; each with different tastes and environmental tolerances)
I'm not a fan of citrus, in general (excepting the blood oranges -- and only when juiced) -- LEAST of all, grapefruit! But, I am told that leaving grapefruit on the tree until *ripe* leaves you with a much more palatable treat!
The same is true for cantelope.
Apples, of course, are so artificially ripened/reddened that store bought are laughable caricatures of the real fruit! Ditto tomatoes (which are fruits, not "vegetables")
Caught up with my sheriff neighbor late last night so he could see the lights "after dark": "I don't see anything wrong with them. Car is brand new, right?" "Yeah" "Then their probably set correctly." "Then why the headlight flashes?" "They're bright. The HID's on my daughter's car are pretty bright, too. Compare this car to your other car and note the difference in intensity, color, beam pattern, ..." "So, all in the other drivers' imagination?" " If you're worried about it, ask the dealer to check them. But, I'd never cite you for them!" This morning, had a visit scheduled with dealer to resolve a rubbing noise: "Hey, can you check the headlights, please? Folks have been flashing their brights at us at night when our brights haven't been *on*!" " Yeah, these lights seem to be a lot brighter than many drivers are used to..." "Could you double check, just the same?" "Sure." Fifteen minutes later, "no problem, they're 'spot on'!"
But, at least the car got a free bath and replacement battery in SWMBO's key fob!
So, occam's razor proves itself to be the proper diagnostic approach: the simplest explanation (drivers aren't used to encountering them, yet) is the correct one!
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.