MONDAY, MARCH 8th, 2021
THE ORANGE EVOLUTION!
What happened to the orange?
And when did it happen?
When I was a kid I remember
grabbing an orange from our
refrigerator. It was always
basically round and about the
size of baseball.
When you bought them at
the A&P you put them in a
brown paper bag so you could
carry them home.
Now, everything's changed!
First of all oranges come in all
different sizes. Some are as
small as a billiard ball while
others look more like a grapefruit!
And whatever the size most come
in net-like bags you can use for
fishing after eating the oranges.
These days they seem to
grow oranges complete with
little stickers. My 5-year -old grandson
tells me they aren't grown on the
orange. Workers stick them on!
And they're not just there for
decoration.
If you look at those stickers
carefully, assuming you have a
powerful magnifying glass, you'll
usually see a product brand and
a whole bunch of little numbers.
I used to think the numerals
represented the sequence in which
the orange was picked. But that's
not the case!
It's a code! If the code on the
fruit is four digits and starts from
the numbers 3 or 4 it means the product
comes from a cultivation from the II
half of the XX century, using artificial
fertilizers.
If the fruit has a sticker with a five
digit code starting from the number 9,
it means it was cultivated without
pesticides or fertilizers.
If the sticker has a five digit code
and starts from the number 8 the fruit
has been genetically modified.
Whatever the code, don't worry
if you forget to peal off the sticker.
They are made from edible paper!!!
Hope you're eating some fruit
and that all your NEWS is good!
