# Oranges questions



## RonJeremy (Sep 17, 2009)

I juice about 25 oranges a day so I go shopping 50 every other day, but on my way to the store I pass several small orange-fields that has hundreds upon hundreds of fallen oranges on the ground and no one seems to ever collect them!


1) Are these fields completely abandoned or does it just seem that way? if so then why? I'm guessing that since oranges are so cheap in Cyprus that many farmers of smaller fields might simply ignores the crop sometimes.


2) Are these fresher than the oranges at the store? Usually store-fruit has been picked before their ripe and ripened in the store, which is proven to be less healthy than fruit that's been allowed to ripen on the tree (as nature intended), but I'm not sure if fruit in Cyprus is picked before ripening (since they don't need to be shipped across the world).

Also I notice store-oranges are very cold, which makes me think they have been frozen, but that seem really strange since oranges has such long shell-life.


3) Can I buy oranges straight from these farmers? Again I've NEVER seen any workers on any fields so I wouldn't know who to ask. One time I saw a guy picking a few oranges but I have a feeling that if I payed him money to pick oranges I would eventually find out he wasn't the owner just some random dude stealing oranges. 

When I lived in Sweden I saw a place nearby with lots of cows so I just knocked in their door and asked if they sell milk and meat, and the stuff I bought from them was hundreds times better than I ever found at stores for amazing price. However in Cyprus it's more difficult because you don't necessarily see a house next to the field, and I'm not sure if farmers speak English.

Also at fruitmarkets around Cyprus the prices are usually much higher than in the stores, which doesn't make sense to me, in Sweden store prices are at least twice as costly as straight from the farmer.


4) Also out of curiousity, when you buy oranges "for juice" at the store, what is the difference between the normal ones? they sure seem identical to me.


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## Cleo Shahateet (Feb 23, 2009)

If you see someone I would ask. If they have fallen to the ground then it seems no one is caring for them. In Mandria there were orange groves like this and we were told we could take as many as we like free of charge. We only took those from the trees though not the fallen ones. 

I would just be careful though as I know someone that helped himself to watermelon from a field. They enjoyed it and then ended up in hospital as the whole lot of seemingly good watermelons had been sprayed with some kind of chemical and should not have been consumed! I think that was a rare incident and it had no smell or taste but made 2 people very ill.


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## Pam n Dave (Jun 11, 2007)

This is going to be a long post so apologies in advance.

Our landlord has a field of oranges adjacent to our house and in it there are at least 5 different types of oranges which are ready for picking at different times.

Clementine’s and Mandarin’s are ready for picking now and are getting past their best. The juicing oranges are just coming into season but in our neck of the woods are still a little bitter. These are all mainly for family and friends.

Next will be the Mandoras and these are the ones that predominate around here and are the commercial crop. They will be picked from February onwards and in this neck of the woods they are harvested by a couple of roaming teams. Most farmers have no say in the proceedings, the farmer selects one of two buyers (maybe a cartel) and in our case get told when the team of pickers will come. The farmer may get a phone call at 6am to say that the pickers will arrive at 7am. This makes it difficult for him to arrange for the boxes to be counted so he probably gets ripped off.

If the crop is picked late then there will be many oranges on the ground, they will go to waste and the farmer doesn’t know what he will be paid until some months after the crop has left his field.

Over the last two years they seem to have been ripped off quite badly and this year if they don’t break even then they will consider leaving the fields unkempt or attempt another crop.

Most farmers are happy for you to take the odd few oranges but please don’t turn up with a plastic bag and start filling it.

Finally we have a few trees that have oranges with knobbly skin, these are used for making glyko and have been ready for a couple of months.

Like you we juice oranges in the season. If you want some then send me a PM and I’ll approach my landlord and ask him for a price per large plastic cache.


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## RonJeremy (Sep 17, 2009)

Interesting, so you're saying it's not just that individual oranges pops up now and then year round but rather the they all grow to one point of the year and then they are collected. So the reason they are so cold in store could be that they are actually quite old when not in season.

When I thought about buying directly from the farmers I was referring to picking up several small batches a week similar to what I do in the store (and how I do in Sweden for buying milk) but what you seem to be saying is that it's better to just buy bulks orders of plastic cache? I never thought about that but it makes good sense since the shell life seems to be so good. The 40 "for juice" oranges I bought yesterday weight 6.465 kg and cost 3.17, so that means one month worth would be 96.975 kg, costing me 47.55 at Papantonious. I guess 100kg shouldn't be too difficult to put in a corner somewhere.

I would be very interested however I live in Paphos/Chloraka and I notice your town is way on the other side of troodoos. I'm guessing that would probably be a problem? (I don't have a car myself) Maybe they know more local farmers?

Btw do you know what the level of chemicals are in these small fields?
Also does anyone know how it is with bananas? Since they are always green at the store I'm guessing they pop up year around (and would probably be less suitible for batch buying since they have short shell life after ripening). There is a banana field very closeby where I have seen workers so perhaps I should gather up the courage to ask next time I see someone there. I eat about 20 bananas a day.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Erm, do you actually eat anything else other than oranges and bananas?
We eat lots of fruit but it seems to me that the amount you eat dosn't leave room for anything else so you must be lacking in certain essential nutrients.


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## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

I must disagree about bananas always being green at the store. This is the huge problem with bananas in the UK but here they are delicious small fruit. We often look for less than optimum ripeness bananas at the store but they are usually yellow and ready to go.

I hope your drainage system is able to cope with all the oranges and 20 bananas a day!



Pete


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## Guest (Jan 20, 2013)

PeteandSylv said:


> I must disagree about bananas always being green at the store. This is the huge problem with bananas in the UK but here they are delicious small fruit. We often look for less than optimum ripeness bananas at the store but they are usually yellow and ready to go.
> 
> I hope your drainage system is able to cope with all the oranges and 20 bananas a day!
> 
> ...


Perhaps he is a fruitarian

I think its called a Fruitarianism

Fruitarianism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not for a meat-lover like me though! Even the diabetes would probably protest. 

Anders


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## Pam n Dave (Jun 11, 2007)

I can only comment on the oranges grown in my vicinity, I know that that there are other types of orange grown such as Valencia and Jafa and I believe that Valencia are available later in the year.

If you look at the origin of the produce in the supermarket you will get an idea where they originate from.

There is more than one Peristerona and I live in the one near Polis so not that far away.

For the last couple of years there have been no chemicals applied to the fields adjacent to the house, the return has not been great enough. Last year I don’t think the return covered the bill for the irrigation and the spring ploughing.

If you are juicing then consider mixing some Clementine or Mandarin juice with plain old orange juice, it gives the flavour a lift.


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## Cleo Shahateet (Feb 23, 2009)

Vegaanders said:


> Perhaps he is a fruitarian
> 
> I think its called a Fruitarianism
> 
> ...


Interesting, I have never heard of "Fruitarianism." You learn something new every day!!


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## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

Are people who live solely on fruit and nuts also known as Fruit & Nut Cases?

(For those old enough to remember the Cadbury ads!!!)

Pete


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## Guest (Jan 20, 2013)

Cleo Shahateet said:


> Interesting, I have never heard of "Fruitarianism." You learn something new every day!!


If you have seen the Movie Notting Hill with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts you had seen another kind. She only consumed fruits that was laying on the ground. If you picked them on a tree it was murder. :hail:

Anders


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## Cleo Shahateet (Feb 23, 2009)

Vegaanders said:


> If you have seen the Movie Notting Hill with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts you had seen another kind. She only consumed fruits that was laying on the ground. If you picked them on a tree it was murder. :hail:
> 
> Anders


Never saw the movie, but it takes all kinds I suppose! Going vegetarian for a short time was hard enough for me, but vegan and only fruits is another level.


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## MacManiac (Jan 25, 2012)

Cleo Shahateet said:


> Interesting, I have never heard of "Fruitarianism." You learn something new every day!!


Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple, was a Fruitarian for considerable periods of his adult life. In his biography it was speculated that this was one of the reasons for his up-and-down medical conditions.


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## Geraldine (Jan 3, 2009)

Pam n Dave said:


> I can only comment on the oranges grown in my vicinity, I know that that there are other types of orange grown such as Valencia and Jafa and I believe that Valencia are available later in the year.
> 
> If you look at the origin of the produce in the supermarket you will get an idea where they originate from.
> 
> ...


I juice oranges every other day, adding grapefruit and other citrus fruits to the mix. The thin skinned are by far the most juice givers.


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## Pam n Dave (Jun 11, 2007)

PeteandSylv said:


> Are people who live solely on fruit and nuts also known as Fruit & Nut Cases?
> 
> (For those old enough to remember the Cadbury ads!!!)
> 
> Pete


If your eating nuts then it's cannibalism. 

(For those old enough to remember what a nut is)


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## S8112 (Jan 12, 2013)

RonJeremy said:


> I juice about 25 oranges a day so I go shopping 50 every other day, but on my way to the store I pass several small orange-fields that has hundreds upon hundreds of fallen oranges on the ground and no one seems to ever collect them!
> 
> 
> 1) Are these fields completely abandoned or does it just seem that way? if so then why? I'm guessing that since oranges are so cheap in Cyprus that many farmers of smaller fields might simply ignores the crop sometimes.
> ...


I wouldn't go into somebody else's field and take his/her oranges or any other fruit or vegetable. If they catch you I am sure you will be in trouble, plus it is not right to take them.

Some farmers do sell their products directly, but these are a minority and the prices are not necessarily cheaper than at the supermarket.


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## Geraldine (Jan 3, 2009)

Pam n Dave said:


> If your eating nuts then it's cannibalism.
> 
> (For those old enough to remember what a nut is)


While hanging washing out a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't help but notice on my visiting son's boxers 'Warning. may contain nuts!'


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## patrickphimr (8 mo ago)

RonJeremy said:


> I juice about 25 oranges a day so I go shopping 50 every other day, but on my way to the store I pass several small orange-fields that has hundreds upon hundreds of fallen oranges on the ground and no one seems to ever collect them!
> 
> 
> 1) Are these fields completely abandoned or does it just seem that way? if so then why? I'm guessing that since oranges are so cheap in Cyprus that many farmers of smaller fields might simply ignores the crop sometimes.
> ...


One thing I've always wondered, why do supermarkets sell some orange juices in fridges and others not ?









I read the labels and they are pretty much the same.

One thing, refrigerated orange juice is more expensive than not.

For the record, I always buy the refrigerated kind


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## Andrea9876 (5 mo ago)

Sorry to crash the post but I'm going crazy trying to think of something and your collective brains may be able to think of it for me... There's a whole bunch of orange trees on the side of the road as you go towards Kyrenia Bar at Avdimou (these trees grow elsewhere but these I've seen since I was a child). The oranges that grow on them are quite frankly horrible - bitter, acidic, plain old nasty tasting even when allowed to ripen. I have been told all my life that they are used for making marmalade and similar items and there's a Greek/Cypriot word that has always been used to describe them. I know this word well but for the life of me cannot remember it! Does anyone out there know what I'm talking about enough to remind me of this word before it drives me totally batty?!! Please!!! 🤪🙏


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Andrea9876 said:


> Sorry to crash the post but I'm going crazy trying to think of something and your collective brains may be able to think of it for me... There's a whole bunch of orange trees on the side of the road as you go towards Kyrenia Bar at Avdimou (these trees grow elsewhere but these I've seen since I was a child). The oranges that grow on them are quite frankly horrible - bitter, acidic, plain old nasty tasting even when allowed to ripen. I have been told all my life that they are used for making marmalade and similar items and there's a Greek/Cypriot word that has always been used to describe them. I know this word well but for the life of me cannot remember it! Does anyone out there know what I'm talking about enough to remind me of this word before it drives me totally batty?!! Please!!! 🤪🙏


I know the oranges you mean, we had a tree at thefront of our house. But I never knew what the oranges were called.


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## goyixa (5 mo ago)

RonJeremy said:


> I juice about 25 oranges a day so I go shopping 50 every other day, but on my way to the store I pass several small orange-fields that has hundreds upon hundreds of fallen oranges on the ground and no one seems to ever collect them!
> 
> 
> 1) Are these fields completely abandoned or does it just seem that way? if so then why? I'm guessing that since oranges are so cheap in Cyprus that many farmers of smaller fields might simply ignores the crop sometimes.
> ...


One thing I've always wondered, why do supermarkets sell some orange juices in fridges and others not ?  I read the labels and they are pretty much the same. One thing, refrigerated orange juice is more expensive than not. For the record I always buy the refrigerated kind


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