CITRUS IN MOTION

you you the unity of motion see and motion sensed this is the motion of citrus and there is always motion seedless navel oranges lemons Valencia oranges white grapefruit and tangerines and ruby grapefruit a unity of excellence from California and Arizona citrus always in motion from the very beginning first is the primal sensed motion of growing its fulfillment is the motion of Commerce they're joining is the motion of an industry whose territories in California and Arizona thrust inward from the Pacific cross two time zones and bring patterned fertility to over 300,000 acres of sun drenched land but the story begins before the fruit or the blossom even before the tree it begins with land of a type and in climate to support citrus off an arid desert the barren land is prepared it is prepared to accept trees and receive water it is broken to the air and awakened in the nursery young trees await their turn born of a study genealogy and raised to a proven strength the young trees are unvetted without disturbing the ball of earth into which they rooted they are wrapped and are ready to take their places in the grove rain is sometimes scarce under the citrus Sun now most urgently the trees need water the water may have to come from a well reaching 2,000 feet beneath the surface from a canal the water may be loosed upon the earth suddenly to drench deep and leach pure through a porous soil it may be preferable to meet her the water through pipes into trenches and down to the deep thrusting roots after five long years of patience and care five years of water five years of Sun the young trees and groves will be ready to begin bearing their first modest crop from the beginning the harvest is protected against disease insects and the hazards of whether to ensure superior citrus fruits orchard heaters stand guard below and wind machines above reaching up ready to attract down the warmer upper air when frost stocks the groves at night a billion-dollar industry naturally fosters its own technology thus a lemon grove gets a crew cut pruning to control its vigorous growth the casual visitor not living through the growers arduous years of toil and bris sees only the serene calm of a mature grow heavy with fruit now it is almost time for the motion of growing to end and the motion of distribution to begin first the citrus has to be picked at the bottom of each ladder is a man a picker his skill is not to be lightly regarded he is a specialist he may work a grapefruit tree from a ladder or an orange tree from a platform his skill in handling the citrus will preserve its premium condition and ensure its survival if he scratches it or bruises it or in any way Mars it it will fail its quality tests and lose its chance to see the world the new motion begins it becomes measurable each loaded field pin weighs 500 pounds the new motion now interprets two new elements ingenuity and muscles of steel with care smoothly through the long hot harvest days citrus is gathered in thousands of groves across the length and breadth of the Western California Arizona citrus country from the grove the fresh citrus moves efficiently quickly to the packing house the wedged buffer levels the truck so that the bins can be easily rolled off this is pampered citrus pampered regardless of variety oranges lemons grapefruit or tangerines all our first received to the sumptuous bath we're beginning to look for the pick of the crop not every piece will make the grade but all are given an equal start after washing their brushed finally they're dried and left with a delicate protective polish at this point the lemons go briefly their separate way they are given a rest because they complete their ripening best off the tree under controlled temperatures but first they have to be sorted by color because the amount of rest they're allowed will depend on their color through color sensitive photoelectric cells the sorter reads the color of each lemon and sorts them accordingly after their rest the lemons show their consistency they now resume the normal packing process the next step is grading natural variations exist in each piece of fruit they differ in appearance and content season human judgment directs each to its best use and market grade most of it will be packed fresh but not all of it some of the fruit has the properties required for processing into citrus products after a laboratory analysis of its contents and condition its juice is extracted and then concentrated by evaporation in a near vacuum vaporized moisture is eased out of the pool juice natural flavor and nutritive values are preserved to reappear later in soft beverages and juice drinks in the average course of events we become aware of perhaps a dozen citrus products the familiar ones in fact through large-scale scientific effort there are over 1,600 citrus products from the peel competitiveness and find tsipras oils from the residues of these extractions come rare and valued products used for pharmaceuticals in this process the flavor of citrus and other volatile oils is protected by sealing them intact in a dry matrix some of these products have sustained men in space like spaceflight they are the outcome of research but while citrus industry research probes forward into space diet it also probes backward into its origins its first concern is citra culture and the quality of the fresh harvest the results are here on the grading table we're trained izip hold the standards that produce the harvest from this expert scrutiny emerges for the first time the pride of the crop after stamping the citrus is sorted according to size as the bars move along the space between them gets bigger the smaller citrus drop through first the bigger ones last from here each size travels to its own packing station and packing is still widely used but Packers like these aren't trained overnight lemons are packed mechanically but at some point the annual volume of other citrus varieties will rival the availability of skilled persons to pack them against that time vacuum packed machines are already in operation with new tools the modern Packer sets a new pace once they're full the cartons are sealed as robustly as they were constructed the glue is waterproof the seal is permanent and emotion is continuous it is the squared off motion of citrus cartons protectors of a live breathing cargo they're tough ventilated and there are no staples to scratch anything the machine knows their shape and stacks them all to interlock the prize fruit is packed its journey to market begins it settles down for the cool Swift final motion that will take it to the corners of the world the cycle is now complete but the motion of the California Arizona citrus industry continues bringing the pleasures of quality citrus to people around the world