Citrus
Citrus and Arizona seem to have grown hand in hand. The first citrus probably came to Arizona with the Jesuit missionary Father Kino about 1687, but remained an agricultural curiosity until about the time of Arizona’s statehood in 1912. Then growers developed large citrus ranches throughout southern Arizona based loosely on the California model, including Sahuaro Ranch in Glendale, now open as a living history park. The high water mark for citrus production in Arizona was about 1965 when more than 40,000 acres of groves were in production. |
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Growing and harvesting (l) Varieties // Processing (r) |
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Many colors, many flavors
With a nod to our state's agricultural history, but more especially because we love its juicy goodness, The Farm at the End of the Road grows a variety of citrus that provides fresh fruit over a period of about six months, and frozen juice stockpiled for the rest of the year. When we learned that citrus can be much more than a grocery story navel orange, we chose eight varieties of oranges including the ever-popular Washington navel, but also the pink Cara-Cara, several burgundy oranges and the delicious purple-fruited Sanguinelli. Limes that ripen in July and August, zipper-skinned Clementine tangerines, two kinds of tangelos and giant pumelos round out the collection. There are enough choices to suit everyone's taste! |
Citrus and Tunis -
the Farm at the End of the Road
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Delivering the Farm's first trees.
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La Virginia We call our orchard La Virginia, the name of the orchard of Leon Noel Stuart, an ancestor who, in 1890, helped establish the grafted citrus industry in Montemorelos, Mexico. |
L.N. Stuart in his Mexican orchard.
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