Citrus Tour

January is citrus season in Southern California, so we went to the California State Citrus Historic Park for the tour. We'd been before in the summer, but we wanted to visit again in season, and I hadn't been on a tour yet. 

We arrived a little early for the tour, so we took a look around the museum inside. They had the history of citrus, starting from how it travelled on the silk road in 500BC, all the way up to 1950s agriculture in Southern California. 

It was then time for the tour. Being Saturday, we had quite a large group going around, but we were told all about how they stop the orchards from freezing, how the seedless fruits are grafted and the bugs that are introducing a virus to the citrus plants, causing lots of trees to be culled. We also got to try several varieties! 

Our guide standing next to the smudgepot which used to be used to keep the fields warmer until they were outlawed in the 50s

First up was an Indio mandarinquat, which was like a kumquat, but larger and apparently slightly sweeter. I'd never tried a kumquat, but these were very tart and juicy on the inside, and you actually ate the outside! It was very sweet and was a nice contrast with the fruit. 

We then tried a couple of varieties of mandarin, one of which was developed at UCR in their agriculture program, took a look at some pink grapefruits and lemons and finally got to try a real kumquat, which was a bitesize fruit we ate whole. Again, the inside was tart and the outside sweet. 

I dropped the whole thing (peeled) seconds later

By this time, my tongue was tingling from all the citrus, but there was more to try inside. They had a little stand set up in the museum for us to try a few more varieties. We were able to try a Buddha's hand which was crunchy and lemony, and a pink orange. 

No pulp in the buddha's hand, just crispy outside

It was a very nice tour and a lovely sunny day for it. We went for a little walk around afterwards to see the other picnic areas and saw they were setting up for some weddings or other ceremonies! It must be a beautiful place for it. We also stopped by the gift shop and got a little bottle of orange blossom honey. 

In the afternoon, we met our friends from Germany who live in our apartment complex to play some tennis. We were pretty evenly matched and had a fun time until it got too dark to see the ball. 

Our zoo passes expire at the end of January, so we made the most of it with one last trip to the zoo. It was quite a cold day, but we did see a lot of animals up and about, including the polar bears! The hippos had been moved temporarily, but they were swimming and playing with a big stick rather than sleeping like normal. 

We saw two gazelle go head to head in a fight and a koala jumping between two trees (they're usually asleep too!) We caught the gorillas just as they were about to be fed and they were all running about, even hitting at the glass in front of visitors! 

We also explored a whole new area, which they had been building earlier in the year, which had bugs and small critters to see, including a horseshoe crab! These weird little crabs are very ancient and so weird to look at, we stood there for quite a while trying to work out how many legs it had and if it were an alien or not. 

A fun, and (slightly) more relaxed weekend than the last few, but it's good to be back in California!

Lots of love,

Emily and Mitchell

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We didn't take any selfies this week, so have this majestic shot of me instead.