Orange Laborer
I bought oranges at the store the other day. I haven’t had any in a while. I love oranges. I love the sweet juicyness of the citrus. But I don’t eat oranges as much as I probably should. When I sat down to have one, I remembered why: They are such hard work.
First, peeling the damn things is a chore. Especially getting started. Trying to get that first dig into the skin with your thumb without shoving your whole digit into the flesh. This is probably a particular problem for me because I keep my nails really short and I have no edge of the thumbnail to sort of slice into it with. And I’m sort of ham-handed. I don’t do well with things that need a sensitve touch. I can’t tell you the number of watches, and battery covers on electronics that I have broken trying to open them.
Once you finally get that first piece of peel going, then it’s another fifteen minutes of taking chunk after chunk of skin off the fruit. By the time you get it all stripped you’re either exhausted or just not hungry anymore. You just want to take a nap. But you’re still not done. Before you can sink your teeth into those pulpy slices and let the juices run down your lips and chin, you have to still clean away the bigger pieces of membrane left from the peeling process. That’s when I say to myself, I am never buying oranges again. But, of course, I remember how much I love the taste and forget how labor intensive they are and end up buying them again.
Oranges are easily the most popular citrus fruit. They even have their own bowl game (the Orange Bowl in Miami, duh) while all other citrus fruits are lumped together in Orlando’s Citrus Bowl. And oranges are among the top most popular of all fruits, behind apples. (I’m sure there would be an Apple Bowl if Ohio were further south and therefore more attractive for a college football game, weather-wise, around New Year’s Day). But it’s a wonder that oranges gained any popularity at all with the effort it takes to enjoy them.
Why can’t they be easy like apples? You can walk up to a tree, pluck and apple, rub it off on your shirt and take a big bite. No fuss, no muss. Speaking of muss, the sticky fingers and half a pound of left over rinds doesn’t exactly work in the orange’s favor.
Why is it that the tropical fruits have the thick skins that are so hard to get into? It can’t be protection from the elements because they grow in places with the mildest weather. Maybe its protection from the super insects that live in those places. Afterall, the thin-skinned apple grows best throughout the midwest and pacific north, where the weather is rougher, but the bugs are gentler. You know, if God had made apples as difficult to get into as oranges, Adam might have just given up (”Thanks, Eve, but it’s not worth it”) and never taken a bite of forbidden fruit. We’d all be living in paradise. Nah, the serpent would have just run it through the juicer.
That’s how I’m gonna go back to getting my orange fix. From juice. At least the agriculture industry has done all the hard work for me. I couldn’t imagine all the effort of peeling an orange, and then still have to squeeze juice out if. Lord knows how many oranges it takes to get a decent sized glass (I drink big glasses of orange juice.) I think it’s time for farmers and scientists to put their heads together and develop an easy to peel orange. They are already on their way with the navel oranges. Navels are at least easier to deal with than regular oranges. But I want an orange that peels like a banana (the only tropical fruit that is easy to eat). I swear that if they could come up with something like that, the already huge citrus industry would explode! They could even give the new hybrid its own name. Perhaps the Ornana.
January 23rd, 2005 at 10:02 am
you’re making me want an orange!!!
hahaha. peeling is worth it.
i like to cut them too.
January 23rd, 2005 at 3:44 pm
Great. I eat oranges often. I love the small clementines which I buy by the box - a little crate with a mesh top. But the big navel oranges are the best. They have thick skin and are messy to eat, to remind me that it’s real food and good for me. I slice mine across the grain and cut each half agin. Then I take each quarter and peel the meat into my mouth. The navel is always disappointing, sometime juicy, but never as good as the main parts. hmmm. I had one this morning too. I still taste it.
January 24th, 2005 at 1:07 pm
You forgot to mention how the juice changes the color of your fingers, even after scrubbing and scrubbing under warm water.
January 28th, 2005 at 5:09 am
Like you, I keep my fingernails so short they’re almost non-existent. I have to admit to cheating when I eat my oranges. I hold a spoon down near the bowl and use the rounded end as a peeling tool. It’s still messy, but it’s much more productive than me trying to claw the peel off without claws. I like your idea for an orange that peels like a banana. Hey, ya never know? The other day I saw apples that are supposed to taste like grapes. Not sure why? If I want the taste of grapes, I’ll eat grapes.