Monday, January 17, 2011

Street Oranges

Here in Athens there are orange trees all over the place, you really can't walk a block without seeing one just growing in the middle of the sidewalk.  All of this citrus growing freely on public property made me wonder, can you eat them?
I did a little research and learned that it is completely legal to pick and eat any fruit that is growing on a tree on public grounds.  I also learned that most of the oranges are a breed of orange that tastes horrible (although apparently good for marmalade).  The other thing that kept coming up when I asked people about the oranges is questions about sanitation, I promptly ignored most of these.
I ignored them because I decided that since it was legal and all, I should try one out.  So one day walking home from a fun adventure, I picked what appeared to be a fairly clean looking orange from a high branch.
The first thing I noticed when I cut it open was the amazing smell, it had to be one of the best smelling oranges I've ever cut open.  However after looking at it I was a little nervous about this stunt.
I took one bite... let me re-phrase that, I sunk my teeth into the first bite, and I was blown away at how sour this orange was.  My lips hurt and remained numb for about 20 minutes or so and I didn't even get a full bit in.  I have never tasted anything this sour in my whole life, and that's saying a lot considering the number of Tear Jerkers I've consumed.

CC

2 comments:

Peter said...

Perhaps you can invent some new sour candy from these oranges!

Chris Stewart said...

"Candy" is not really the right term for anything someone might invent from these oranges. Perhaps I could invent some new sour torture device from these oranges instead.