Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Food & Drink => Topic started by: JennyB on 01 February, 2018, 01:37:29 pm
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You know the ones - those with a tough little baby orange embedded in one end. Am I right in thinking they are a recent thing, or have they always been around?
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Definitely remember them from childhood.
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Navel oranges.
Certainly around since the early 70s.
But I think they’re seasonal.
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My Large Oranges from Sainsbury's are ALWAYS navel oranges.
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Aren't Naval winter and Valencia summer or perhaps its the other way around? Probably can get both all year round these days.
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Isn't it preggers from the way they bred them seedless?
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Navel oranges have been around for a better part of two centuries, the 70s predate the debut of my higher consciousness, but I'm sure British people had any fruit before 1983. Before that any 'orange' was a lump of wood coated with a virulent orange paint made from lead and dioxin. They are the 'winter orange' and Valencia the summer, though as they're not tied to geography any more, you can get both in any season. Google says they were discovered in 1820 in Brazil.
I don't think the aborted orange has anything to do with the infertility, but it may be a result of the same mutation, which prevents pollen production. No pollen, no fertilization, no seeds. They can be fertilized by other varieties of oranges so it's possible to get occasional ones with seeds. As they can't reproduce sexually, every navel orange is a clone of the original (as such there's a lack of genetic diversity). Kind of like bananas (though they're sterile because they're triploid rather than a mutation). I think seedless grapes came from a mutation.
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Isn't it preggers from the way they bred them seedless?
Its a 200 year old mutation so probably not and they are all clones of the original plant propagated by cuttings so they aren't actually bred n the sense of breeding a new variety.
As an aside I can recommend "The Land Where Lemons Grow: The Story of Italy and its Citrus Fruit " by Helen Atllee to anyone interested in the intertwining of fruit, history comerce and art.
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Interesting. I remember Jaffa oranges from the 1960s and 70s, and Outspan from South Africa, but not Navels. Perhaps that's all we could get in Norn Iron.
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Interesting. I remember Jaffa oranges from the 1960s and 70s, and Outspan from South Africa, but not Navels. Perhaps that's all we could get in Norn Iron.
The Jaffa is a variety of orange (from Jaffa originally) but I think Outspan is just the name of a South African fruit exporting company not a particular variety of orange.
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A list (http://innvista.com/health/foods/fruits/orange-varieties/) of oranges.
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Do they not come All the way from China?
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In the mid/late 70s I used to go to my nan's on a Saturday morning and do her shopping for her. Navel oranges were indeed a thing then in Winter.
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Do they not come All the way from China?
Yes, they fled during the Great Panda Rising.
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Do they not come All the way from China?
Yes, they fled during the Great Panda Rising.
I'll let the River answer.
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Interesting. I remember Jaffa oranges from the 1960s and 70s, and Outspan from South Africa, but not Navels. Perhaps that's all we could get in Norn Iron.
Nah, we had them in the 50s. "Oh, it's got a baby orange in it."
No matter which variety, they were usually sour.
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Sainsbury's navel oranges are not sour; bland sometimes but never sour.
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Modern ones aren't. A wee bit tart at times, but never the good old face-screwer-uppers we used to have to choke down ("it's good for you"). Back when I was a kid, sweet oranges were the exception.
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The sour ones are Seville oranges.
I picked one and tried to eat it when we were climbing in Spain, it was sour to say the least.
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I thought Seville oranges were the variety used for marmalade.
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Yup, and for duck with orange.
In the 1950s the sour ones were almost all of them. They were usually unripe and/or full of pips.
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I'm not sure about that. Navel oranges have, by definition, been the same since 1820. The only changes have a been through grafts and genetic drift and are limited to a couple of other navel varieties.
That said, oranges are sensitive to growth conditions. But I think you were eating the painted wooden ones.
Trust me, I'm a botanist. It's true. One day, I'll be on a plane and they pilot will ask if there's a botanist on board.