Stacey and I went to a citrus grove in Mesa the other day. Last year I had to go to this golf thing in Mesa (we'll leave it at that) and I saw fields of citrus trees. It's no secret I love oranges and grapefruit - ask my grandpa who used to spend forever cutting them for me when we'd visit their place in Florida!
Anyway, we went to "The Orange Patch" and were pleasantly surprised. It was the tail end of orange season ... in fact, yesterday was possibly the last day for navel oranges according to their sign. You'd think citrus from the desert would not be sweet or juicy like it would be in more tropical climates ... but the oranges are some of the best I've had and the grapefruit were pretty dang good too!
In the early to mid 1900's the people of this area took the wide open spaces away from Phoenix and created acres and acres of citrus groves. Sadly, a lot of the groves have been destroyed for "progress" of rows and rows of houses that look all the same. However, the cool thing is that many of these area still kept quite a few of the mature citrus trees.
This time of year, when you drive through much of the Phoenix area, there is a sweet smell in the air of citrus blossoms. I think it is one of the best smells in the world!
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