Grower
Seasons/Availability
Look for Cara Cara oranges beginning in January. The season of this special orange sweetie ends around the end of May.
Current Facts
A variety of the navel orange. this delicious citrus is unofficially referred to as the pink navel orange.
Description/Taste
Extraordinary Cara Cara oranges boast a vivid and rich deep salmon color. Offering succulent flavor, the gorgeous and sweet flesh is low acid and seedless. Some describe the flavor reminiscent to a perfect blend of tangerine and grapefruit. Size varies from small and medium to large.
Nutritional Value
An excellent source of vitamin C, oranges provide dietary fiber and are sodium-free. Oranges, along with other citrus, contain carotenoids, flavenoids, and coumarins that are considered powerful anticarcinogens. The antioxidants, glutathione and glucarate, are also present. The Cara Cara orange contains lycopene, which gives the red color to its pulp. This natural pigment, through research, has been shown to fight against certain diseases.
Applications
A perfect between meal healthy snack, blend orange segments into vanilla or plain yogurt. Ideal for lunch boxes. Add its juicy pizzazz to fruit salads. Use slices as garnish for main entrée sandwiches. Great for fruit plates. Freeze the juice in ice cube trays for enhancing cocktails and beverages. Make marvelous marmalade and an outstanding orange sauce. Grower Armando Garcia tells Specialty Produce that he enjoys the Cara Cara orange simply sprinkled with a little salt and chili powder. To store, keep refrigerated.
Ethnic/Cultural Info
The name orange actually refers to the fruit's scent, not its color. The word comes from the Sanskrit word "naranga", which comes from the Tamil word "naru", meaning fragrant. An old variety, the Brazilian type of navel orange is properly called "Bahia."
Geography/History
Locally grown at Fallbrook, California, at Garcia Organic Farms, owner and grower Armando Garcia was one of the first farmers to cultivate Cara Cara orange about 10 years ago. Three weeks before the Cara Cara oranges are ready for harvest, Garcia Organic Farms stops watering the trees in order for the nurturing rays of the sun to develop optimum flavor in the fruit. Watering during this final stage of growth would water down the Cara Cara orange's great flavor. Proud of providing premium produce to the marketplace, family-owned Garcia Organic Farms is reputed for researching and growing newly released cultivars and for being one of the first to supply the market with exciting and diverse varieties. Armando's father assists in the agricultural research and gathers vital information to keep Garcia Organic Farms on the forefront of successful farming procedures. Garcia Organic Farms has been providing the marketplace with outstanding fruit since 1985. Two farming locations, more than one hundred varieties of premium quality fruit are produced on thirty acres of rich, fertile land. Specialty Produce promotes and endorses our local growers and the California farming industry. This orange originated at the Hacienda Cara Cara in Venezuela in the early 1970s, hence its name. In 1870, the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. sponsored the first introduction of navel oranges to the United States, and of course, the fruits were called Washington Navel. In 1873, three branches of an orange variety from Brazil were given to Eliza Tibbets by an official of the United States Department of Agriculture. By 1878, she had three fruit-bearing trees and had begun the navel orange industry in Riverside, California. Today delicious descendants of the Washington navel orange are being enjoyed. Amazingly, one of those three original trees is still alive and still bearing fruit. The word "navel" comes from the development of a secondary fruit at the end of the main fruit which causes a belly-button look.
