I think of winter as the citrus season … and in fact what most of us see as oranges typically have their best color and flavor just after Thanksgiving. Don’t you remember big lump at the bottom of you christmas stocking? Well that is true of navel oranges. Unfortunately there are other varieties of orange but an industry driven, narrow marketing focus has turned the Navel into an equivalent of the Red Delicious.
Starting in April and peaking toward the late summer Valencia oranges hit our produce stands and this, my friends is an orange of a different appeal. Velencias are juicing oranges and while they don’t get so big nor as ‘pretty’ as Navels you have no way of knowing just how good OJ can be until you squeeze a pile of these tasty treats for breakfast.
You can use simple reamer style juicers. The production is slow and if you just want to try it once this is a good place to start plus if you don’t already have one then it’s about time. The type that look a bit like garlic presses are going to make your hand sore pretty quickly and electric models are not just silly cleaning is a pain. Admit this is something that you are going to do often and for basic juice production, ease of cleaning and simple operation the lever driven press is perfect. The juice you get will be so much better than that “pulp-in-not-from-concentrat’ stuff at your grocers … do your self a favor pick up a couple three pounds of Valencia oranges while they are in season and for breakfast enjoy real OJ …
