An Honest Day's Work

Who says you can't get your two year old to be useful around the house...

All kidding aside, I was surprised how into our yearly backyard orange harvest Tessa was-- last year she had fun picking up all the oranges we pulled out of the tree and would throw down on the ground, she would busily scoot by, scoop them up and place them in the wagon for us. She tried biting into one a few times like an apple when she realized that these little orange balls of delight make the most delicious glass of orange juice you'll ever drink in your life. So Cole sat down with her and showed her how it's done here in Florida. The kid drank as much as we would give her, (I know, I know, bad for enamel, we know), and now it's really sad to see her get disappointed the rest of the year when she drinks orange juice from anywhere other than our backyard. It's just never as good. Ever. Did you ever wonder why? No matter what brand you're buying, and no matter how much the label is screaming 100% natural and fresh squeezed, truth is most of the oranges for juice aren't even coming out of Florida anymore, and once squeezed the juice has been sitting in a tank at a processing plant for sometimes up to a year, where all the flavor has been stripped out of it, and then they add back there own particular crafted "brand flavor." Yuck! And of course none of these beverage companies have to say anything about it because of our super awesome labeling practices here in America. all I know is that when I drink a glass of store bought juice, it never tastes like orange juice. We call it orange drink.

As a kid my parents had about 10 or 12 trees of citrus, and each season we would fill buckets and buckets of oranges and make juice that lasted us months. There were certainly years as I got older where I was like... "Seriously?! We have to go and deal with all these oranges again? And of course now as an adult I look back on those trees and feel so lucky that I got to grow up with them, if only I could shake my bratty teenage self and tell him not to be such a jerk to my parents about helping out. I was seriously the worst. The WORST!

So I am making sure I enjoy all the enthusiasm I am getting out of Tessa about being in the yard with her old man, picking oranges, taking care of the tree, and then the sticky work of juicing all these oranges. She was such a huge help, she really was, and she made me proud. I was ready to start my own grove after this weekend. A new family business. Maybe when she is older we can have a stand or something. Wouldn't that be something!

She picked all the oranges she could reach, and made the funniest little grunt each time.

She said: "I drink it" & then tried to squeeze the juice out with her bare hands


She separated all the bad oranges from the good pile, and we buried them for compost.

Ready for juicing.



She got the hang of it quick, and got herself into a good rhythm.


We fill mason jars so we can give them out to family and friends.


She drank two full glasses as fast as she could until hers eyes were watering.

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