Oranges are so interesting . . .

• In Afghanistan, oranges are customarily used as a seasoning at the dinner table; oranges are squeezed over the food to help cut grease.


• In Jamaica, people clean their floors with an orange cut in half; mechanics there use oranges to clean away grease and oil.


• Spain has over 35,000,000 orange trees.


• In Switzerland, oranges are sometimes served smothered with sugar and whipped cream.


• Europeans sometimes eat oranges with knives and forks.


• It wasn’t until after the Second World War that commercial orange-juice concentrate became available in America.


• The taste and aroma of oranges differ by season, county, state, and country, and even in the position in which it grew on the tree.


• The outside color of an orange has no absolute correlation with the maturity of the fruit and juice inside.


• Oranges were used in cosmetics by ladies of the French court in the 17th-century.


• The navel orange is one of the oldest varieties of oranges.


• About 25 billion oranges are typically grown in the United States each year.


• Many orange varieties float when placed in water; very sweet varieties, however, sink to the bottom.


• In the 19th-century orange blossoms were regularly shipped to Paris in salted barrels, because no French bride wanted to be married without wearing or holding them.


• Lightning kills as many orange trees as any disease.


• 17th-century Frenchmen liked to pour orange juice over their roasted chestnuts.

Orange you glad I'm finished? More facts about oranges.

Photo: Bowl of oranges in an antique Georgian glass bowl in my kitchen.