Welcome

If you love gardening - or want to learn more about Canada's top hobby - join us at the Nobleton & King City Horticultural Society.

Monthly meetings are held on the fourth Monday of the month at 8 pm. at the Nobleton Community Hall (9 Old King Road, just opposite the Feed Store). They feature informative speakers, beautiful flower shows and plenty of friendly conversation. Guests are always welcome

Annual membership, which includes meetings and a show book, is $15.00 for individuals or $20.00 for families. There is a $3.00 fee for non-members at the monthly meetings.

For information contact Tina Stone or Barb Downey

In The News

"Oranges and lemons sing the bells of St. Alban's"

I was certainly surprised to see on our local TV news few days ago, with orange trees in Florida purposely coated with ice as desperate growers sought to save their groves from even colder temperatures as frigid air from the Canadian Arctic, only slightly warmed by its journey, swept into the Sunshine State.

If this multi-million dollar crop has been badly damaged, we will see shortages and big jump in the cost of all Florida oranges, not to mention other of the state's produce sold here.

I first saw oranges growing on trees, not in nearby Florida, but half a world away in Queensland, Australia, and I was as fascinated by this as an Australian friend was seeing cherries growing on trees in the Niagara region. So now I've been doing some research on oranges and this is what I've learned.

Oranges originated in Southeast Asia ---Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand ---when several thousand years ago the largest citrus fruit, pomelo (citrus maxima) was cross pollinated with one of the smallest citrus fruits, tangerine (citrus reticulata, Latin for webbed) by nature and the two distinct types of citrus fruit we call oranges citrus sinensis, Latinized Greek for "of China", sometimes called c. dulcis, Latin for "sweet" and the sour fruit c. aurantium, Latin for the colour "orange-red") came into being. These plants eventually found their way to southern China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and southern India and made the journey to the West from there.

Orange comes from the Dravidian (the language of people living in southern India since prehistoric times) word for fragrant, (probably referring to trees' blossoms), which became naranga, the ancient Sanskrit word for orange tree, that in turn became naranj in Arabic, and arangia in Latin. By the by, the name of the colour comes from the fruit.

There is some confusion about when orange tree cultivation reached Europe. The fruit was most likely known in Roman times when Arab merchants would have brought it from the east, but there are conflicting accounts as to when the actual plants were introduced. Some historians claim that the same Arab traders brought saplings to East Africa about the same time and from there their cultivation spread to the Mediterranean area. Others say the trees weren't being grown in the West until the 11th century, when the Persian orange was introduced into Italy and the cultivation of this bitter variety soon spread across southern Europe.

Shortly after 16th century Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovered a sea route to the Orient, saplings of sweet orange trees were brought back to Portugal and planted there. Gradually the growing of these much more popular oranges replaced that of their bitter cousins.

On one of his voyages to the Americas, Christopher Columbus took orange saplings and had them planted on the island of Hispaniola, shared now by the Dominican Republic and the tragic land of Haiti. A few years later, Spanish colonists brought saplings to Florida.

"Jaffas and Sevilles call the bells of St Paul's"

Jaffas, the sweetest of oranges and once an important export of Israel, were introduced to the area around the ancient port city of Jaffa in what was then called Palestine by the Arabs soon after sweet oranges became popular in the West. This orange variety is well able to withstand colder conditions, as the area where they grow has the occasional fall of snow. Jaffas ripen spring to mid-summer making it a mid-season fruit. Today continuing conflict in the Holy Land has drastically limited the number of oranges available from Israel, but fortunately Jaffas are being grown in Florida and California.

The Valencia orange, developed in Spain, is another very sweet variety that is also being grown in the Americas and it is from this variety most commercial orange juice is made.

In 1820 a natural mutation was discovered an orange tree in a grove planted on the grounds of a monastery near Bahia in Brazil which caused second tiny oranges to develop at the bottom of the main fruit but within its the peel. From the outside, these ends looked similar to human navels and thus today's most popular and widely sold orange was discovered and named. Because this mutation leaves the fruit seedless, the only way to grow more of this new variety was to take cuttings and graft them onto other types of orange or citrus stock. Navels are still propagated by this method which means even today all navel trees are clones of the original Brazilian tree.

Sevilles, another Spanish orange, is a must ingredient in the making of marmalade. This bitter variety now also grown on this side of the Atlantic has a short season and is only available from December through February. I well remember my mother and grandmother being on the watch at this time of year for the brief appearance of these oranges so the yearly supply of marmalade could start being made. Today, blood oranges, easily recognized by the streaks of red in the fruit and the juice which is often a deep burgundy colour, are used as an added ingredient in traditional homemade marmalade.

"Oranges are berries sing the bells of St. Mary's"

Something I found interesting is that in the botanical world, the orange is classed as an hesperidium, a type of berry, because the fruit or pulp comes in membraned wrapped sections inside a separable rind and the original oranges had many seeds.

Orange trees are small, broadleaf evergreens that left unpruned can grow 20 feet high and some have been known to reach up 33 feet high. Under cultivation, the vast majority of grove trees have undergone a great deal of hybridization and won't come true from seed thus they are grown by grafting cuttings on hardy dwarf citrus stock so that height can be controlled. These grafted saplings can remain in nurseries under the watchful eye of their "nannies" for up to two years. It can take from two to 15 years for a tree to bear fruit, depending the variety and growing conditions but they can continue to produce for 50 to 80 years.

Like apples, oranges will adapt happily to a variety of soil types, from clay to sandy soils, but again, like apples they demand good drainage and a sunny location. While in their brief dormant stage the trees will tolerate light frost. But it can cause serious damage if it occurs during the growing season, which it has done this year. Most trees have green fruit on them much of the year that only turns orange when it is nearly ripe (this fruit will not turn orange if picked green).

The fragrant orange blossoms, a favourite with brides, are used in making some perfumes and herbal teas. Oil from the rinds of bitter oranges is used in flavouring certain liqueurs such as Grand Marnier. These rinds are often finely grated and used in baking ---it is an important ingredient in Scandinavian gingerbread. Oranges have long been used in traditional medicine, especially in China. Now modern medical research is looking at this fruit's medicinal properties with much interest.

Right now, I'm interested in finishing one the delicious oranges from South Africa that bought locally at a very reasonable price.

"All oranges are fine the United's bells chime." (My apologies for the liberties taken in using the centuries old children's nursery song Oranges and Lemons).

Originally published in the King Township Sentinel on January 27, 2010
by John Arnott