the friday feed: fresh squeezed orange juice

In February, we took a weekend trip to Chicago to celebrate our grandson’s second birthday. While we were there, my sister-in-law called and asked if we had received our oranges. She didn’t know we were out of town. When I told her we weren’t home, she said, “Well, you have two boxes of oranges sitting on your front porch. Can Patrick go pick them up?”

“No,” I told her, “Patrick’s here with us. I’ll call my neighbor.”

Unfortunately, the oranges sat outside overnight - in 0° weather.

When we got home, I called my neighbor to let her know I was coming over to pick them up. She laughed and said, “You might want to bring your car. There are two big boxes.”

She wasn’t kidding. The two boxes held four dozen oranges - 48 in all! That’s a lot of oranges for two people. I did have to throw a few away because of the frigid temperatures, but we still had a mountain of citrus.

Oranges from Florida in the winter are the best. They’re at their peak for freshness, flavor, and juiciness. I started eating a couple a day, but it takes a while to make a dent in 48 oranges. Before long, a few more were starting to go bad. Time to go the fresh squeezed orange juice route.

So I bought a juicer - and that finally solved the orange surplus. As that long ago orange juice commercial said, "A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine." We've enjoyed our liquid sunshine!