Valencia… Limes? No, Not Really

I’m sure you must be looking at this picture, thinking, “Obviously, this is an orange tree.” And you would be correct. But last year, I didn’t have an orange tree. I had a tree filled with bright green orbs all over, and I plucked them all at this stage, thinking they were limes. Don’t laugh….

Linda Ly
Valencia orange tree

I’m sure you must be looking at this picture, thinking, “Obviously, this is an orange tree.” And you would be correct.

But last year, I didn’t have an orange tree. I had a tree filled with bright green orbs all over, and I plucked them all at this stage, thinking they were limes. Don’t laugh.

When I moved into my house last summer, most of the fruit trees were not in good shape. The previous owners had said the mulberry was barely fruiting, and the avocado tree — despite being at least a couple decades old — gave them less than a dozen avocados.

So when I bit into my “lime” and found it dry and bitter, I blamed it on poor fertilization. Or poor watering. Or maybe it was still a little unripe — never considering that maybe it was still a lot unripe!

After I harvested all those awful limes, after I squeezed them over fish tacos and dunked them into beer, I found out that the tree was, in fact, a Valencia orange tree. And the few fruits I had left on the tree because I couldn’t reach them eventually ripened to a brilliant orange color, with the sweetest, juiciest flesh inside.

This year, I finally have an orange tree!

Valencia orange tree

Perfectly round, tender fruits dangle like Christmas ornaments from tree branches. Winter citrus always perks me up after feeling a little sad that the bounty of summer has passed. Now that I’ll have a real harvest of oranges soon, I need to start conditioning my arms for all the juicing I’ll be doing!

Valencia oranges in various stages of ripeness

Nearly ripe Valencia oranges

8 Comments

  1. You mentioned that the trees seemed under cared for and had minimal production when you first moved in. What did you do to help rejuvenate the trees and restart their production? I’m a school teacher and I’m renovating our garden and we happen to have two citrus trees with minimal production that need some attention. Would it mostly just be bathing the soil with compost tea?

  2. I get inundated during citrus season with grapefruits, lemons, and oranges. My arms wear out. Can you suggest an electronic citrus juicer?

    1. I have an inexpensive model from Hamilton Beach that works well. It takes up very little counter space and has juiced hundreds of citrus by now! Still going strong.

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