http://www.news-journalonline.com/lifestyle/living/2012/02/15/crowds-find-citrus-fest-appealing.html
Crowds find citrus fest appealing
By MARK ESTES, Correspondent
February 15, 2012 12:05 AM
Martin Wilkes, right, with Flying Dragon Nursey in Jacksonville, answers some
citrus questions from Mimi Munro of Ormond Beach during Saturdays ninth annual
Citrus Harvest Festival at Washington Oaks Park.
(N-J | Mark Estes)
THE HAMMOCK -- A big crowd bundled up and turned out for the ninth annual Citrus Harvest Festival at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park.
"I'd say this was the busiest Citrus Harvest Festival ever," Park Ranger Melissa Kafel said on a chilly Saturday. "We had a really good turnout today. It has been a banner year for citrus; we've had our highest sales since we've been recording it for the Friends group. We picked a hundred bags for today and we don't have many left."
Oranges and other citrus picked from the park groves is sold at the part but citrus wasn't the only thing for sale Saturday. The Friend's Second Saturday Plant sale featured long lines and racked up heavy sales during the one-day event.
Dave Gatonska and his wife, Joyce, from Palm Coast left with a nice camellia.
"We're actually Friends of Washington Oaks," Gatonska said as he carried his purchase out to his car. "We volunteer occasionally."
A wide selection of plants, citrus trees and fruit and other snacks wasn't the only thing going on during the festival. Ruth Micieli, owner of Simple Gourmet Catering, conducted a standing-room-only cooking demonstration, creating an entire meal using citrus, finishing with the signature entree of citrus poached salmon that involves cooking salmon on top of 1/2-inch slices of grapefruit.
"It's really a simple dish," Micieli said. "You can use other fish as well, but I recommend a thicker piece of fish like haddock if you do. Fish like mahi mahi tend to flake apart too soon."
It paid to stay for the whole show: Micieli served samples of all the dishes she created at the end of the demonstration and there were no leftovers.
Park ranger Joe Woodbury led three tours of the citrus grove while entertaining each group with a history of citrus, with an emphasis on citrus in Florida, as well as the cultivation of citrus trees.
"Citrus has been important to Florida starting very early," Woodbury said. "Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 brought sweet oranges to the New World. The Spanish crown mandated that sailors carry citrus seeds with them and plant them just to guarantee that there would be a source of citrus. By the 1800s, there were citrus trees growing in the woods everywhere. That's why we have citrus groves instead of citrus orchards. It's a funny trick of history. A grove is a nice open spot in the woods; an orchard is a formalized garden."
Woodbury said that the first orange groves were established in St. Augustine and citrus has been grown at Washington Oaks as early as 1763 -- long before it became known as Washington Oaks.
Woodbury said Florida is the No. 1 grower of grapefruit in the world but has lost the title of first in oranges to Brazil, although 80 percent of the orange juice consumed in the U.S. is from Florida.
In fact, 85 percent of the orange juice consumed in the world comes from Florida and one state in Brazil, he said.
"Since we're the only planet that has oranges, then it's 85 percent of the orange juice in the universe," Woodbury said. "If you're drinking orange juice in the U.S., you're probably drinking Florida juice. If you're eating an orange in the United States, it's probably not from Florida.
"The reason is Florida oranges are awesome oranges, they're sweet and juicy, but they're ugly. They're green and they have seeds."
The tour ended with Woodbury climbing a ladder and tossing Murcott or honey tangerines down to his daughter Karen, who offered them to anyone that might like a taste.
In the afternoon, Judy Sulser, park volunteer and naturalist, gave a well-attended and interactive year-by-year account of the history of citrus in Florida from 1493 to 2012.
In previous years, Mike Barwald, co-owner with his father of Flying Dragon Nursery, Jacksonville, has been on hand to answer questions about the care and feeding of citrus, along with offering a variety of citrus trees for sale.
This year Billy Barwald, Mike's father, and Martin Wilkes, his brother-in-law, performed that duty.
Billy Barwald, who at 93 has been growing citrus for 70 years, offered some vital advice for anyone wanting to grow citrus trees near the beach in a salt-intensive environment.
"Most people make the huge mistake of improving the soil before they grow and that's fatal because improved soil holds the salt and doesn't let it flush out," Barwald said.
"If you're growing anything close to the ocean, you grow them in the sand that's there. The problem with growing in sand is that you have to water them more and if you water them more you have to fertilize more because the fertilizer gets washed out of the soil.
"If you're willing to water and fertilize more you can do very well, because that's where they were originally meant to grow."
When it comes to watering, Barwald said to be sure to water in the winter because lack of water in the dry season kills more citrus than anything else.
"Watering in the summer is nothing because the it rains," Barwald said. "What we need is to water less in the summer and more in the winter."
The next big event will be the 23rd annual Earth Day Celebration at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 21 and 22
