When I was growing up in California my family had citrus trees. I remember the oranges and tangerines turned a pretty orange just before we’d pick them.
Now I’ve run in to a friend who states that in her years living in Texas and Florida her experience is just the opposite. She says that Navel oranges and other types don’t turn orange. If you want to eat one, you pick them when they’re brown. Otherwise they’re harvested when they’re a bright yellow and get ripe by the time they get wherever they’re going in the world. Either way, she says, they don’t get orange.
To make matters worse, this woman says that in order to give oranges that pretty orange color in the supermarket, they’re painted.
Now, I’ve never know this woman to lie to me, or pull a practical joke, otherwise I’d just write her off. Am I nuts? Oranges turn orange, right? That’s why they call them that instead of browns?
I’m wondering if you’re the one putting us on. You’ve seen oranges on trees but you believe this woman who tells you they aren’t orange? Paint? Come on. Do they mask off the stems so they don’t get painted?
I don’t doubt my own knowledge that oranges in California turn orange. But living in New England, I’m aware of the great differences between produce from the west coast and the east. Avacadoes are completely different. Apples have more varieties than I can count.
To top it off, I don’t really find the idea of coloring the skin of a fruit that won’t be eaten anyway too drastic an idea for a retailer. If produce can be coated in wax or genetically altered, why not colored?
In short, are the oranges they grow in TX and FL so much different than the ones in CA that they don’t turn orange?
I live in florida, and I can attest to the fact that * ripe* oranges are, in fact, orange. Rotting oranges are brown, and you see plenty of those all over the ground.
Think about it… when an orange turns brown, it’s because it’s old and drying out. Your friend is putting you on about that (or she’s just strange). She is right about them picking the fruit early so it ripens by the time it reaches the store.
It’s kind of true sometimes. I don’t know why but navel oranges particularly develop a brown crust on them around here. I don’t know what causes it and they’re still perfectly good to eat. I don’t know if it’s some sort of scale or sunburn but it mostly appears in late ripening oranges. Of course most of the oranges are still orange.
My grandfather was in the citrus biz in Florida for 50 years, so I picked up some orange knowledge by osmosis. Navels turn orange after the trees have been exposed to their first cold (upper 30’s, if I remember correctly) night of the winter. On the tree, they are not nearly as bright orange as the ones you get in the supermarket, but that’s because they’ve got all kinds of dust and other junk on them. Grocery store oranges have been seriously cleaned up. Definitely no paint, though I wouldn’t be surprised by acid baths or other chemical treatment.
Some navels do turn brown or even black while still on the tree. I think Gaspode is correct that it’s sunburn, but that’s just a guess. These are not the same as rotting oranges. Some people get a kick out of them. My grandfather had one little old lady customer who came by each year just to buy a couple bags of black fruit. Never tried them myself–appearances count for this consumer.
This is the source of the “painting” story. There are varieties of orange that ripen green, but are hard to sell under that color. Their skin is “improved” after harvesting. (I don’t remember whether they are actually subjected to dye, or whether they are put in a nitrogen-rich or oxygen-rich atmosphere, briefly, to bring out the orange color on the otherwise perfectly acceptable fruit.) (There was a bitter fight on this subject on alt.fan.cecil-adams about a year ago and the participants still take shots at each other over the subject.)
