A taste of heaven

A taste of heaven
Originally uploaded by Dave Traynor

Sure, these may look like oranges.

But they're much, much more. These are Buck brand organic oranges and in these parts, they are legendary. For people who might be sitting on the fence, not sure whether there really is a God, these little babies tilt the scales. One bite and you know there is a heaven and you've just entered it.

If that sounds a little strong, well...you haven't tried them yet, have you? Some people in our household - not necessarily me - insist on bulk buying when the Buck brand is in the local Thrifty's Foods. So today, I picked up a few bushels of the things. And it turns out that even Heaven can have the occasional problem with the weather.

Here's what a little orange card that I found inside one of the bags said (in very small type):

ORGANIC NAVEL ORANGES
The original navel orange was discovered in Brazil at the turn of the century. One tree was started in Riverside, California. From this one tree came the California navel orange known through out the world as the best eating orange available. We grow several varieties of navels at Deer Creek Heights Ranch including the original Washington navel. These oranges are grown and custom packed at our own ranch. We never pick our fruit until it is ripe and full of flavor. We do not artificially color our fruit, use artificial wax or post-harvest fungicides. Unfortunately the temperatures in first week in the spring of 2008 were in excess of 100 F. This caused over 60% of the immature fruit to drop that resulted in the lowest average fruit count per tree in over 25 years. As a result you may find some fruit in this bag with some scarring. We apologize for this, but it is necessary if we are going to have enough fruit to sell. We still unconditionally guarantee our fruit to you as the sweetest available and offer a return of $4 back if you are not completely satified when returned with a sticker and/or receipt. Your comments are appreciated.

Deer Creek Heights Ranch, Route 4 Box 130 - Porterville California

So there you have it. There was some bad weather in Heaven last spring and we've got the scarred oranges to prove it. But regardless of what they look like, they still taste good.

Thank you know who.