Making freshly squeezed orange juice

A lot of people drink orange juice every day but don’t ever think about how juicing oranges ever got started.  Admittedly, I’ve never thought much about it myself.  With a little research, I learned that oranges were first juiced in California after an overproduction of oranges in the mid-1910s.  Over time, Florida became known for its citrus production, accounting for more than 80 percent of citrus fruit production worldwide.

As I was making my List of 50 Things, and thinking about all of the things I’d never tried and or done, I decided I wanted to learn how to make freshly squeezed orange juice.  I mean, who wouldn’t love to have freshly orange juice every morning?

Juicing oranges begins with a juicer and delicious oranges

Although I’d never juiced oranges before, I knew I would need two things: oranges and a juicer. So the first thing I did was order my favorite oranges from B&B Farms in Mesa, AZ.  The oranges from B&B are seriously the best oranges in the world.  I was introduced to B&B by my sister-in-law who lives in Arizona.  She shipped a box to us one year for Christmas, and I’ve been in love with them ever since.

After ordering the oranges, I researched juicers on Amazon.  I didn’t want to spend too much money because I wasn’t sure if I would love juicing oranges on a regular basis.  As I scrolled through the products on Amazon, I learned a lot.  I learned that the most expensive juicer runs nearly $8k and is for commercial use. The least expensive juicer costs 23 cents and is pretty manual.  After a lot of scrolling, I landed on the Cuisinart CCJ-500 Pulp Control Citrus Juicer with over 17k 4½ star reviews.  After reading all of the positive comments, I knew I had to hit the “Buy Now” button.  True to Amazon fashion, the juicer arrived in three days and I was ready to start juicing.

Ready to begin juicing

Luckily for me, the B&B box of oranges arrived the same week and I was good to go.  However, before I had a chance to try the new juicer, my daughter beat me to it.  She was in town for the weekend and offered teach me how to use it.  Since I hate reading instructions, this would be a  win-win.  In no time, she had called me into the kitchen for a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice.

I was surprised to learn that it only took three oranges to fill the glass.  I thought it would take at least four.   Also, I was also expecting there to be a huge mess when she was finished.  Given the clean kitchen and the wonderful glass of orange juice staring up at me, I vowed to make freshly-squeezed orange juice every day.  I even ordered another box of oranges in anticipation of juicing.

Well, it’s now been over a month since I learned how to make orange juice. I wish I could report I was a juicing maniac.  Sadly, I’ve only made orange juice three times. It’s not that I didn’t want to continue juicing oranges, it’s just that I think I like it more when someone else makes it for me.  Not surprisingly, I also feel this same way about sandwiches.

Fortunately, my daughter will be home from college in a couple of months.  Maybe, I can convince her to make me freshly-squeezed orange juice again.  And while she’s at it, maybe some sandwiches.