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They call these Navel Oranges an heirloom variety? What happened to them during my lifetime?

7/7/2016

13 Comments

 
Picture
​by Sarah Phillips, CEO and founder, Ugly Produce is Beautiful

When I was growing up in Southern California over 50 years ago, we called these navel oranges, and they looked just like the ones in the photo - a bit bruised, with surface flaws.

We picked them from our backyard trees and bought them from roadside trucks. I remember the numerous navel orange groves (now long gone) in Orange County, CA, hence its name. They we so juicy and fragrant.

I was happy to see these on my recent trip to the California farmers' market, while on vacation from the East Coast where I now live, and to be able to eat my favorite "old friends" again. They were actually labelled Heirloom Navel Oranges. I had to take a double-take when I read the sign. I knew immediately that the ones I buy today must have been "improved upon" in my lifetime for these to be called heirlooms. I now know that for something to be called an heirloom variety, that it is original, old, and unique; that the common varieties we see at the marketplace today, have been bred over my lifetime in order to produce more uniform fruit, more productively, and faster without considering flavor, which is the normal agribusiness industry practice today. 


The heirloom navel is the original or “old line” Washington Navel that got the California’s citrus industry booming. Heirloom navels are grown using certain farming practices. The grower gives special attention to the soil, just like it was done since navels were introduced to America from Brazil in the 1800s. It reportedly isn't common practice anymore for navels that are sold in the grocery stores, and hence, the original great flavor has been lost.

Unlike the navel you are used to, heirlooms aren’t in stores year around. They typically will find them in stores from December into late April/early May with the peak being in the winter months. A couple of growers you can still purchase them from are Ripe to You and Cecelia Packing.

There was nothing like my eating these now called navel orange heirloom varieties, again! ​It brought tears to my eyes and pure joy to my senses, when I bit into my precious prize. Juice was dripping down my arms as I ate it, and I found orange remnants of peel under my fingernails from having to struggle with peeling it. The flavor was outstanding.

I was having a real old-fashioned heirloom produce experience; something that my children and their children may never experience. What is natural fruit to me is not the same authentic experience that they hold in their memories. They get the repeated messages that perfect and abundant, year-round and always available food is more important than flavor. How sad. There's nothing special for them (and us) to look forward to because produce has become seasonless.


As children, my mother always put a navel orange in our stocking at Christmas. I never understood why she did that. Now I finally do.

​
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13 Comments
Kerly link
7/21/2016 04:53:54 pm

Sarah, I really loved this story. Especially the last paragraph - so beautiful and so lovely. Thank you, it was really moving....I always say an orange a day makes you a woman (in case you are already one by nature :) Eh.

Reply
Sarah Phillips link
7/21/2016 05:29:34 pm

Thanks for reading this story. I'm so glad that is was moving! Thanks for commenting!

Reply
Kerly link
7/21/2016 05:34:45 pm

I love oranges and nicely written and educating stories, so it was my pleasure :)

Reply
Sarah link
7/21/2016 05:40:04 pm

Thanks, again! :)

Reply
Darlene
2/9/2017 04:24:05 pm

My mom always put an orange in our stockings too. I am now a grandma and give my grandkids oranges for christmas too. Never knew why until I read this.

Reply
Matt link
2/15/2017 05:59:36 pm

Great article. We are enjoying some "old line" organic Washington Navels for the first time. Everything about these heirlooms - the juice, flavour, texture, oil in the skin - compares to nothing else.

Reply
Jeff
3/25/2017 06:22:45 am

It is a great story. Are you the same source as the eatlikenoone.com article on heirloom navels? If not one of the two of you should source the other.

Reply
Bob
3/31/2017 05:12:38 pm

Being a 6th generation CA orange grower, I appreciate your interest in the good old Washington navel. Despite misconceptions, the Washington is still the most popular and abundant navel that you find in the stores. The "Heirloom" designation has been added by savvy marketers to reinvigorate interest and sales of this good old standard navel. The Washington navel is not something new, or something lost. Only the name "heirloom" is new.
My advice is this-buy California navels when at their best from mid-December through March. It is then that they are the sweetest and most flavorful.

Reply
Derick
2/24/2018 10:24:07 am

The Orange for Christmas is an old tradition. The Dutch gave oranges for Saint Nicholas day and the practice is reflected in traditional St Nicholas songs about "Oranges from Spain."

Reply
Pj
3/5/2019 03:52:36 pm

My mom, age 90, found an orange in her Christmas stocking every year too. I'm sure they were Washington navel. Mom did not put them in our stockings but we found plenty in the refrig.
My mom always are the white on the peeling, I never learned what started that.

Reply
Ashlee Dyer link
12/4/2020 01:38:09 am

Hii nice reading your post

Reply
Jeff M. Website link
3/10/2021 11:05:16 pm

Really, really love your story, Sarah! Heirloom Navels are unmatched in flavor and a seasonal gift to citrus lovers everywhere, truly proving the best things in life withstand the test of time.

Reply
Ned Netterville link
11/22/2023 02:50:46 pm

My local Krogers had both on sale so I bought both heirloom and no heirloom to see the difference. The smaller “non” was inferior in every respect.

Reply



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