Did you know? Old California Citrus!
Did you know? The Things I Just Learned Weekly Series!
If you’re enjoying this newsletter, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Right now, the annual subscription is only $24, that is only $2 dollars a month or .46 cents per post!
Food History
There’s a 151-Year-Old Citrus Tree in California
I honestly can’t remember how the night started but it ended with me learning or being introduced to the wild history of California’s citrus industry.
It apparently started with a woman by the name of Eliza Maria Lovell Tibbets (1823-1898), the Mother of the Washington Navel Orange “Industry”. Eliza was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was a strong advocate and activist for women’s and freedmen’s rights as well as universal suffrage.
While Eliza, and her third husband Luther Tibbets, a prominent abolitionist, were living in Washington D.C. in 1868, she became friends with her neighbor. Her neighbor turned out to be William Saunders. At that time, William was the Superintendent of the Experimental Gardens and Grounds Division of the relatively newly created U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), located in the National Mall.
Interesting Fact: Saunders William was responsible for designing the national cemetery at Gettysburg.
During William’s 30-year plus career at the USDA, he was responsible for introducing a large number of new plants into American agriculture, including persimmons, 300 varieties of apple, Tappahannock wheat, but he is best known for introducing the navel orange—or, he would be after meeting Eliza.
Interesting Fact: The National Mall use to be a hub of biodiversity. There were gardens, an arboretum, conservatories, and experimental farms.
In 1870, Saunders received a dozen of budded Bahia Navel Orange trees from a missionary in Bahia, Brazil. A couple years later, after graphing the cuttings on to California sweet orange root stocks, Saunders sent two (or three, this seems to be debated) trees to his friend Eliza, who at that time resided in Riverside, California. Eliza planted the trees in March, 1874 and the two trees flourished in the California climate.
When the oranges were showcased at a citrus fair in 1879, they became a hit and almost immediately recognized for their potential commercial value. The oranges produced by the tree were completely seedless, large, easy to peal, rich in flavor, juicy, and conducive to transportation due to their thick skin. This variety became known as the Washington navel orange, although others wanted to name it the Riverside navel orange. The Washington Navel Orange quickly became the most popular grown variety of orange in California and the most important crop in California’s economy by the end of the 19th century.
The citrus industry in California predates the introduction of the Washington navel orange, but it experienced drastic growth after the cultivation of the Washington variety. It is estimated that there were approximately 90,000 citrus trees in California around 1875, in ten years the number grew to 2 million and by 1901 it more than doubled again to an insane 4.5 million trees! Citrus planting started to spread quickly throughout the entire state of California. By the end of 1917, the orange industry was estimated at around $30 million a year. The far reaching consequences of these two two orange trees are truly hard to comprehend.
Interesting Fact: In the mid to late 1800s California’s biggest crop was wheat! Around 1880, farmers began to transition and focus on growing fruit.
One of the originally planted trees, most commonly referred to as the Parent Washington Navel Orange tree, is still standing and producing fruit to this day, making it 151 years old! (Fig. 1) Wow! It is even more mind-boggling that possibly all Washington navel orange trees in the world come from this one tree!
The tree was replanted on April 23rd 1902 to its current home on the corner of Magnolia and Arlington Avenue. It is still standing in that spot, although nowadays the Washington Navel Orange tree is housed in an enclosed structure with an insect screen for protection against citrus greening disease. To see what the tree looks like today, watch the below video. The youtube video was published in January 3, 2024.
The second tree (Fig. 2), sadly died in 1922. This tree was replanted with the assistance of President Theodore Roosevelt (Fig. 3) on May 8th, 1903 underscoring the true significance of these particular orange trees. According to contemporary locals, the tree started to deteriorate shortly after President Theodore Roosevelt’s death in 1919. You never know.
Additional Things I Learned This Week:
Did you know that the Pentagon complex behemoth (it’s the second largest office building in the world) was partially built on top of the U.S. Department of Agriculture crop research facility, called the Arlington Experimental Farm (Arlington Farms). It was used primarily to breed new varieties of plants/crops.
This experimental farm was a direct extension (or relocation) of the experimental farm that was in the National Mall under supervision of our friend William Saunders. In 1900, over 400 acres of Arlington estate across the Potomac River in Virginia was given to the USDA for experimental farming.
Digging a little deeper, I learned that the Arlington estate belonged to Mary Anna Custis Lee and her husband Robert E. Lee until 1961. It is important to acknowledge that this was a working plantation, and the mansion built on the estate called Arlington House was built by enslaved persons.
Mary Anna Custis Lee was the only daughter of George Washington Parke Custis. Yes, it turns out, he was George Washington’s, as in the first president of the United States, (adopted) grandson!
In 1864, the federal government confiscated and purchased the estate for $26,800 "for Government use, for war, military, charitable, and educational purposes." This was done on the basis of unpaid taxes which at that time had to be paid in person by Mary Anna Custis Lee. In 1873, Mary Anna’s son George Washington Custis Lee, sued the U.S. government and in 1883 the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had to purchase the property from Lee for an additional $150,000 (more than $4 million!).
I hope you enjoyed today’s quick history lesson!
News:
I am so excited to finally share my newly published recipe for VARENYKY on Serious Eats!
You can find the recipe, process, and a little cultural, and historical context here.
Let me know if you make it! I would love to see more and more bowls of varenyky on people's tables.
BURNT BASQUE CHEESECAKE:
Orders through August 31st are now live!
If you’re enjoying this newsletter, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. It’s only $24 a year right now.
I love this idea! Thanks for the interesting read, Olga.
Thank you, Olga, for this insight into agricultural history of California! I live 40 min away from Riverside. Next time I am in the Riverside area, I’ll certainly find the historical tree.