Camphor is a very tall and striking evergreen tree.  The leaves have a glossy, waxy appearance and smell aromatic when crushed. In spring it produces bright green foliage with masses of small white flowers.   It produces clusters of black berry-like fuit. It has a pale bark that is very rough and fissured vertically.

The wood is reduced to chips or ground to a fine powder and the leaves are also ground up. This is then distilled with steam for several hours and the crude camphor crystallizes on the walls of the still.

Camphor is a white crystalline substance, obtained from the tree Cinnamomum camphora. Camphor has been used for many centuries as a culinary spice, a component of incense, as a medicine and perfume. Camphor is also an insect repellent.

Cinnamomum camphora is native to Tawian and southern Japan.

Our Lovely Camphor Tree dates back to WWII

Tip:   The camphor leaves  have high levels of oil in them and can be detrimental to your garden – should not be used as mulch. The oils will excrete over time and integrate with your soil producing a water-resistant shield. Your soil will then be in danger of becoming hydrophobic and your plants will suffer.

Florida oranges represent history, health and agriculture. Walking through the ‘heirloom orange grove’ which dates back to 1879… one can sense a magical  serenity.

It’s amazing how delicious, juicy and aromatic the oranges are.

Our heirloom orange grove contains the following:

• Satsuma
• Navel -(Regular, Yellow and Red)
• Ponkan
• Robinson
• Hamlin
• Pineapple Orange
• Murcot Honey
• Ambersweet
• Ruby Red Grapefruit
• Duncan Grapefruit
• Pink Grapefruit

SATSUMA:  Part of the mandarin orange family, which also includes tangerines and clementines, satsumas are one of the sweetest citrus varieties, with a tender texture. Their moderately thick skin peels off readily, and with easy-to-separate segments, they make convenient and healthful out-of-hand snacks.

NAVEL ORANGE:  A single mutation in 1820 in an orchard of sweet oranges planted at a monastery in Brazil yielded the Navel Orange, also known as the Washington, Riverside, or Bahie navel.

Navel oranges develop a “second orange” at the base of the original fruit, opposite the stem. From the outside, it looks similar to the human navel.

Because the mutation left the fruit seedless and, therefore, sterile, the only means available to cultivate more of this new variety is to graft cuttings onto other varieties of citrus tree.

NAVEL – RED (CARA CARA): A Cara Cara Orange is also called a Red Navel Orange. This citrus fruit variety has a dark orange-red interior fruit color, and is very sweet with generally a very low acid content.  It’s quite easy to understand why a Cara Cara Orange is considered to be one of the best eating oranges in the world.

On the outside, a Cara Cara orange has a skin color that is more yellow than orange, with a rich, red pulp inside.

PONKAN:  (‘Chinese Honey Orange’)– is a member of the tangerine family. It was originally introduced to the United States by Reverend Barrington of Melrose, Florida, about 1880. His original grove is still in production, and under the care of Marion Holder near Hawthorne in Putnam county.

Trees can be propagated by seed, as they breed true, or grafted onto other rootstocks, trifoliate orange being the most popular. The ponkan mandarin orange is an autumn fruit, with most production between September to December

ROBINSON:  The result of pollinating the ‘Clementine’ tangerine with the ‘Orlando’ tangelo, at the United States Department of Agriculture’s Horticultural Field Station, Orlando, Florida, was introduced into cultivation in 1960. It is essentially a tangerine, has 10 to 20 seeds.  A favorite commerical cultivar.

HAMLIN:  Commercial harvest season: October – January

Hamlin is the most widely grown early sweet orange in Florida and the tree among the most cold tolerant.  Its earliness makes much of its harvest possible before the onset of winter freezes in Florida.  The fruit is susceptible to splitting and creasing and will frequently drop heavily later in the season.

PINEAPPLE ORANGE:  An excellent juice or eating orange.  A midseason fruit, medium to large size, round to oval with seeds.  The Pineapple orange is acclaimed fro its juicy sweetness.

The tree is the least cold hardy of the orange varieties. It is subject to alternate bearing and during seasons of heavy crops is very susceptible to freezes. Pineapple is also susceptible to citrus blight, showing rapid collapse particularly under stress of a heavy crop. It is very susceptible to preharvest fruit drop during heavy crop years. The peel is subject to creasing and to another stress-related condition known as Pineapple ‘pitting’. While it produces an excellent quality juice favored by processors, the variety is no longer widely planted for many of the above mentioned reasons.

Despite it all.. Good Juice Orange!

MURCOTT HONEY: This little tangerine’s distinctive flavor is excellent simply as a refreshing snack.  If the juice is too intensely sweet, mix with regular orange juice to tame its exceptionally sweet personality. Quite perishable, Murcotts keep only a day or two at room temperature and up to one week refrigerated.

Resources say this tangerine is an old tangor variety developed in Florida by a gentleman by the name of W.T. Swingle. It was later propagated by two growers, Charles Murcott Smith and J. Ward Smith. A member of the mandarin family it is a cross between a tangerine and an orange;Murcott tangerines grow in the United States, they especially love the Florida climate.

AMBERSWEET:  Released in 1989, has been classified as an orange for fresh fruit purposes. The fruit usually attain minimum fresh fruit standards by mid October. It can be peeled more easily than other oranges. The fruit resemble those of navel orange in size and appearance more than other types and have a good orange rind and juice color at maturity. The juice has a dark orange color at maturity. The trees are moderately cold hardy and fruit can usually be harvested prior to damaging freezes. For identification purposes: the peel of small developing Ambersweet fruit has a pubescent (fuzzy) appearance, a characteristic which disappears as fruit matures.

RUBY RED GRAPEFRUIT:  They tend to be sweeter than white grapefruits.

DUNCAN GRAPEFRUIT:  Duncans are the original grapefruit, with a white pulpy flesh and incredible flavor. This large fruit, only grown in a handful of groves, is super-sweet and dripping with juice.  (We’re lucky to have this one in our grove!!)

PINK GRAPEFRUIT: Selection: will have smooth, firm and shiny skin. Has a rich yellow coloring and a slight rose colored blush to the skin, while others will be yellow. Some varieties will “re-green” if they remain on the tree long enough. This means that color does not indicate ripeness, nor does it affect the flavor or quality of the fruit.

Tip:  How to pick an orange  – Wrap one hand around the desired orange so it sits in your palm and your fingers spread out around it.  In one motion, twist the orange about 90 degrees and tug firmly, but not too hard. The fruit should separate from the stem without ripping the skin.

Visited a friends farm, looking at milking cows.   This one is a mixed breed, about 6 years old, pregnant with calf.   She’s feasting for two!

My grandfather was an incredible farmer, he not only had a sustainable farm but also took cattle raising to heart.  He had cows for both milking and meat content.

So, whether it runs deep in my veins or it just the notion that one can’t have a farm without a cow grazing on the pasture – looking forward to having our own milking cow.  Before we bring a cow onto the farm we need to secure the perimeter and clear the field of weeds.

Our new farmer friend Jose from Deland, Florida was so accommodating with information.  He took us on his 80 acre farm, showed us the different hold corals for the cows.  Showed us the bails of hay he had stored in the barn – he said they weighed about 300 lbs each.  Mostly for feeding during the cold season when the grass tends to slow its growth.

He shared tops on how cows eat with their bottom teeth and the importance of clearing the field of weeds…as the weeds will get in their tongue and cause infection.  He said cows tend to eat most about anything.

I was full of questions, because it will be my first time caring for a cow.. needless to say a pregnant cow.  So I asked …where do they have the baby calf.. would I need to prepare a special area for her?   Jose said that they’ll just pick a corner of the field and pretty much nature takes care of nature; What I found interesting was when he mentioned the placenta, so I said… what should I do with it?   He said, not to worry the cow eats it.

>> Cow eating Placenta CLICK HERE

Tip:  If the cow has horns you can count the rings on the horn — times 2 and you will get an approximate age of the cow.

Just got back from the Farm..

brought home some delicious freshly picked Florida oranges.  So wonderful to connect with nature, as I walked through the orange grove I could feel the sweet energy of the trees.

Tip:  Oranges are best known for their vitamin C content, which helps activate our own detoxification processes. Vitamin C has also been known to help fight osteoporosis.  The fiber content in oranges also helps prevent the risk of developing colon cancer. Even orange zest contains skin-cancer-fighting compounds. Juicing oranges may also help fight and prevent lung and breast cancer. This is because oranges are very rich in a compound called citrus limonoid. A small orange (roughly five ounces) contains large amounts of folic acid, potassium, and thiamin. Oranges can be added to various cooked or cold dishes, eaten as snacks, or squeezed for their delicious juice.

• One orange contains about 50mg of vitamin C. That is about 2/3 of our daily need.
• Fresh, homemade orange juice is an excellent source of calcium.

Room-temperature oranges will yield more juice than oranges that are refrigerated. Using your palm to roll the orange around on the countertop a few times before squeezing the fruit will help extract more juice. Also, microwaving your oranges for a few seconds will help to loosen up the juice inside so that you are able to get more of the juice while making fresh oranges. You can store freshly made orange juice in the refrigerator for one to two weeks. (Source: http://www.soymilkquick.com/orangejuice.php)

Tip:  Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, Sulfur and Calcium are essential to Orange Tree production of fruit.

It seems that in today’s fast paced life many of us city folks take for granted the bounty that comes to us from the land.

We welcome you to join us in this adventure as we seek to bring back to life a small abandoned farm — come back and visit our blog.