Orange Picking

This post is a little late as it’s been over a month since we went orange picking, but life and work and holidays have gotten the better of me.

 

Our friends Summer and Kitty (who took us to the amusement park) asked us if we would like to go into the countryside and pick oranges. Since we hadn’t gone outside the city yet, love oranges and have a great time with Summer and Kitty every time, we couldn’t pass it up.  They picked us up and it was a short drive through some really beautiful farm land.  In the beginning, there was a variety of crops, and I got to ask some of my ridiculous foreigner questions (Summer always answers them and never judges); who farms all this, is it corporations or single families?(mostly single families), What is that, I see it growing all over? (it’s rice – does not look like I expected).

There was a little farmers market set up right next to where we parked, and I was thrilled because Summer’s Dad (who had come with us) offered to help me buy some things and show me which ones were good.

 

The whole area was so beautiful and serene, I really felt like I could have stayed there all day. Because it’s more of a local thing though, our foreignness really stood out here.

Alex and Kitty were so excited, they each got their own basket and clippers and we got escorted into the grove behind someone’s house. We walked back and started picking! The owner walked back with us, and showed us which spot had the most ripe oranges.  Here the little ones are the best, more like tangerines.

 

Alex’s favorite part was all the sampling, he got to peel and eat a few oranges on the spot.  We came at almost the end of orange season, so most of the fruit was ripe and ready.

Once we were done , we sent the kids into the house to wash their hands.  As soon as they exited, they found the water pump. Just like Wuzhen, Alex was drawn to it and had to pump water, but Kitty was in on it too!  They had a blast pumping water, forget a playground, people just need to install water pumps everywhere.

On the walk back to the car, I noticed Alex’s eyebrow was very red and blotchy, and then there was another spot on his face. And I started to panic a little, thinking, what could he have eaten or touched that would give him an allergic reaction.  Then it looked like his nose was starting to bleed and I couldn’t figure out what was going on.  Summer’s parents told us that he shouldn’t eat any more oranges if his nose was bleeding because oranges make your body hot and that’s what causes nosebleeds.  Traditional Chinese medicine would suggest drinking some hot water to cool yourself down.  I went to wipe the blood away and realized that it was red ink.  He had touched a bottle with wet hands and the ink soaked in and then he touched his face all over.   It was such a silly thing in the end.

Summer’s Dad helped me buy fantastic eggs, some really lovely peppers- they are almost like serranos, and another vegetable that for the moment is escaping me (maybe it was cabbage?).  It was really nice of him to help me since I have very little experience picking fresh eggs or peppers and I’m sure I would have gotten the wrong ones.

It was a really fun day and I hope we get to do it again. The kids had a blast and I had oranges for days! We ended up giving them out at work because we had so many extras.