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A Sunny Delivery

December 15th, 2011

I grew up in South America in a tropical climate, that means I grew up eating wonderfully delicious in season citrus. Even though most of my food comes from my local area, I take advantage of living in this day and age by enjoying a variety of fresh citrus each year. Last year I ordered one box of organic grapefruit from G & S Groves and they were so good, I decided to join their fruit of the month club this year (I even wrote it on my calendar last year).

Last week I received my first delivery, Rio Red Grapefruit. I’m a HUGE fan of grapefruit, I like them all, even the sour white ones. I’ll have no trouble putting away the 36 lbs of grapefruit and the 36 lbs of oranges which are supposed to arrive next week.


I usually just eat grapefruit like most people eat oranges, in sections, but every now and then I bake them or put them on salads. If you’ve never had baked grapefruit I’d highly recommend it. It’s the perfect way to enjoy them on cold winter morning, they’re juicy, sweet and oh so good! I’ll be posting my recipe for baked grapefruit over on the Your Day blog tomorrow if you’re interested.

Do you like citrus? What’s your favorite kind?

14 Comments to “A Sunny Delivery”
  1. B ryan N. on December 15, 2011 at 7:49 am

    Oranges…my wifes aunt and uncle go to Florida every winter and send us a case of oranges.They are so sweet I think I could finish off the box myself.The ones in the stores around here look good but are tasteless and dry.My wife is a fan of the Grapefruit maybe she will have to start getting them sent to her like you do.The supermarket prices for citrus are too high even if they were any good to eat.

    Reply to B ryan N.'s comment

  2. Amber J on December 15, 2011 at 9:02 am

    Oranges are my favorite! I love it when citrus that looks halfway decent starts showing up in Montana. I was contemplating ordering a box of oranges this year as I remember them being so delic direct from the farm, this is how we did it as a child, store-bought citrus in Wyoming equals yuck!

    Reply to Amber J's comment

  3. Victoria on December 15, 2011 at 9:09 am

    I’ve been thinking about citrus delivery, but wasn’t sure where to begin, thanks for the Texas tip. Many east-coasters rely upon Florida for their citrus, but I never thought about Texas.

    Looking forward to see how you use the grapefruit and oranges, I’m a big fan of fresh grapefruit juice with a little gin and gingerale.

    Reply to Victoria's comment

  4. Sofie Dittmann on December 15, 2011 at 9:10 am

    I just received two boxes from a CSA we sort of belong to now. They came from FL, and she said they are on a reduced-spray program and that she keeps and dries the skins. We got oranges and grapefruit, primarily for the fam as I don’t eat citrus much. May change that now, b/c these seem delicious…

    Reply to Sofie Dittmann's comment

    • Susy on December 15, 2011 at 11:19 am

      I keep the skins of all the citrus I buy too, grapefruit skins are supposed to be good to throw in tea if you’ve got a cold. Something about them boosts immunity from what I’ve read.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  5. goatpod2 on December 15, 2011 at 9:49 am

    I like tangerines, oranges, clementines.

    Amy

    Reply to goatpod2's comment

  6. Rhonda on December 15, 2011 at 11:14 am

    Ohhhhhh yes. Baked grapefruit is my favorite way. When I first got married and cooked one, my husband thought I was crazy. My daughter and I love grapefruit and like you, we just peel and eat. When you dig into it with a spoon, you just waste juice. :-) We only just discovered blood oranges last year. Blood Oranges quickly became our favorite oranges.

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  7. Pearl on December 15, 2011 at 11:16 am

    I love both grapefruit and oranges. My favorite oranges are navels and clementines.

    Reply to Pearl's comment

  8. Terry on December 15, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    I love satsuma oranges but they are hard to find. My second choice is navel oranges and I pretty much only eat them in winter. Have you ever had a Pumelo? They are good but expensive. Working in produce at Whole Foods for several years turned me into a more seasonal eater.

    Reply to Terry's comment

  9. Jodi Tork on December 15, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    Ruby Red Grapefruit! I too eat it like oranges.

    Reply to Jodi Tork's comment

  10. 1916home.net on December 15, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    36 pounds is a LOT! My faves are the easy to peel Clementines. We had a heck of a time finding a nursery selling this variety tree (although the clementines themselves are sold all over california). We finally found it, paid I think $70 for the small tree, but glad we did.

    Reply to 1916home.net's comment

  11. KimH on December 15, 2011 at 6:08 pm

    If it comes from the Valley (and yours does) then I LOVE them.. no matter what they are.. Oranges, grapefruit, lemons & limes… Yum!
    I was born & raised just 40 miles east of where your fruit is coming from so I know its the BEST! (not biased am I? ;) )

    I really have to say after eating fruit from the Valley, it has ruined me for any other. My dad was in agri-business so we always had boxes & burlap bags full of all sorts of fruit & vegetables all year long since it rarely freezes there, and there is a lot of commercial vegetable & fruit production there.

    We had so much produce we juiced daily and we became quite spoiled. I detest any store bought orange juice I’ve ever tasted and have a really difficult time finding good oranges that taste anything similar to Valley oranges. Grapefruit is a different story.. Ruby Red is good no matter where its grown. I dont think I’ve had any of the Rio Red but they probably created it after I left the Rio Grande Valley when I was almost 16. It looks beautiful.

    I usually eat it too just peeled and eaten out of hand.. Only thing about it though is I dont like the skin.. its just too bitter for me, but none of the other fruit bother me.. weird.

    My dad said he was planning on sending me some oranges & grapefruit from his trees if the woodpeckers didnt put holes in them all.. The cold snap they got a few weeks ago should have made the sugars run high..
    Crossing my fingers for some awesome Valley Fruit..

    Reply to KimH's comment

  12. Pearl on December 16, 2011 at 9:14 pm

    Read your post this morning on the Baked Grapefruit. One of my favorite ways to eat it is sprinkled with a little bit of brown sugar and microwave it just until the sugar melts. I’m going to try it with some cinnamon the next time.
    All this talk about citrus made me hungry (I was down to 2 clementines) so I rushed out to my Amish neighborhood fruit market and came home with navel oranges, grapefruit and another bag of clementines.

    Reply to Pearl's comment

  13. melissa on December 21, 2011 at 12:59 pm

    I may be biased, but I think Texas Rio Reds in season beat the pants off of any other grapefruit, ever. One of the few things I love about living here is the incredible citrus we get each winter. I’m quite fond of my little limequat tree, in its first year and producing like mad. I also love Ponderosa lemons – they’re enormous and have a lot of pectin-containing seeds and membrane which are GREAT for marmalade.

    Reply to melissa's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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