Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Orange Grove

I always thought it would be fun to pick oranges right off the trees in an orange grove and eat them. Mommy had heard about this great U-Pick Orange Grove on Kelle Hampton's Blog. So we saddled up Evan and Eliana, and took the country roads out of Naples, through orange grove country to Bob and Judy's U-Pick in Fort Myers, FL
When we got there, I met Bob, he was about to "head into town"(which is far by the way,) in his pickup truck, but kindly told us where the buckets were to start picking oranges. I walked up to the front of the grove only to find a big black pig looking back at me. I didn't know if it was wild or not, and wasn't about to take any chances. So, I calmly said, "Gen! Head back that way!" I told Bob about the 'Wild Boar' at the front of the grove and he just laughed. He said it was his neighbors pig, and that the pig comes in to steal oranges. Luckily, we didn't have to worry about wild boars, but we did have to worry about fire ants. It's an organic farm, so they don't use pesticides, which is great, but the drawback is fire ants, and there were ALOT of them. We explained to Evan and Eliana not to step on the and mounds, but we all managed to get bit anyway. 

Getting the oranges off the trees was harder than we thought! The ones that weren't quite ripe were on there pretty good, and you had to pull real hard to get them off the branch. Evan pulled so hard a few times that he wound up on the ground! 

Ms. Eliana eating some orange right off the tree!

Mmm Good!

This one is a little high, but Evan can stand on his tippy toes.

5 minutes in and Eliana decides it's time to go home.



Suddenly, we heard jingle bells coming towards us. It was 'Bob.' Bob and Judy's super sweet and friendly dog who instantly became best friends with Eliana and Evan.

Bob wanted some of Eliana's Cheerios from her Ziploc bag. 

Bob just wants some Cheerios.

So we only picked about 1/2 a bucket of oranges, and it was way more than we'd ever be able to eat in the few days we have remaining here in Naples, but it was more about the experience. The kids loved it. I'd highly recommend paying a visit if you're ever in Southwest Florida!



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