Oranges And Forgotten History

[Music] around 75 million tons of oranges were commercially grown worldwide in 2018 and shipped to virtually every corner of the world orange trees among the most popularly cultivated fruit trees in the world and like many other cultivates have been carried by humans around the world to be grown far from where they first originated oranges are now grown on six continents and the history of oranges is unique and intimately tied to human civilization and of course not too many fruits can claim to be the namesake of a color it is history that deserves to be remembered citrus fruits originated in asia likely in the southeast himalayan foothills and surrounding area according to a 2018 genetic study the history of individual citrus fruits is complex and it's unclear when precisely the fruits were domesticated although they spread over southeast asia and even australia millions of years ago they have been cultivated first in india and then in china and elsewhere for at least several thousand years genetic studies of sweet oranges have shown that they're a result of crossbreeding between pomelos and mandarins bitter oranges similar in outward appearance but not in taste are not eaten raw but are used for flavoring and in alcohol the sweet orange seems to have come from a deliberate cross by ancient farmers the first certain mention of the fruit appears in a chinese source in 314 bc the origins of the bitter orange are less clear and it may have arisen naturally linguistically the word for orange came from an ancient sanskrit word for the orange tree nuranga this became the persian narong and then the arabic word for the bitter orange narage the bitter orange took its name across the world first spreading westward with trade through india persia and possibly the mediterranean in fact several other citrus fruits seem to have spread even earlier first the citroen which 4th century bc greek philosopher theophrastus called a persian apple and several centuries later the lemon it is possible that bitter oranges reach greece and italy at this time although it's not certain the bitter orange was popular in medieval muslim culture as a flavoring in medicine and its flowers were used for perfumes the muslim empire helped bring the bitter orange to north africa and then into spain growing bitter oranges became highly popular in andalusia especially in the city of seville the mythical founder of the city is hercules who supposedly founded it during his famous labors just before he traveled to find golden apples sometimes identified as oranges because the greek and latin words for oranges translate to golden apples by the 10th century a.d the bitter orange was planted widely in andalusia supported by a complex system of irrigation designed to sustain orange orchards the issue of water and irrigation was so important to the region that it has continued to define the appearance of the land in the modern age oranges from seville have become famous as the primary oranges used in british marmalade and much of the modern crop of seville oranges now go to satisfying the uk's demand oranges spread throughout the mediterranean the orange slowly made its way north though the etymology isn't perfectly clear the word came to france as orange and by the 12th century the middle english as orange sometime at the end of the 15th century or early 16th centuries traders finally brought the sweet orange to the european table the earliest found written reference to the fruit in europe comes from italy in 1471 and in 1475 the first distinction between a sweet and a bitter orange appears in a manuscript from rome in fact oranges have a close relationship with the church in early modern europe italian medieval tradition says that oranges were brought to italy by saint dominic of guzman the founder of the dominican friars when he gifted a spanish orange tree to pope innocent iii in 1216. a tree supposedly grown from the same roots still remains at the convent of saint sabina in rome in 1483 saint francis of paola went to the french court of king louis ix to request help with an illness the fryer didn't eat meat or food derived from animals prompting the king to request lemons and sweet oranges and muscadille pears and parsnips for the holy man who eats neither meat nor fish the sweet orange was much more palatable and gained popularity among the wealthy in europe the discovery that citrus roots could prevent scurvy and made the fruit vital to sailing as many as two million sailors died from scurvy during the age of expiration this is why columbus brought orange seeds with him on his journeys to the new world and may have planted them at hispaniola in 1493. ponce de leon and other spanish explorers brought oranges to florida in the 1500s and origins were growing at saint augustine the first european colony in what would become the united states by 1579. all of the explorers of this time brought oranges with them and planted the seeds on islands and at colonies wherever they went one hope was that establishing orange groves along trade routes would help ensure an ample supply for ships this brought oranges to brazil mexico and much of south america spanish missionaries brought them north into arizona between 1707 and 1710 and franciscans brought them to san diego by 1769. if you've ever wondered which came first the name of the fruit or the name of the color then you'll be happy to know that the name of the fruit clearly came first the fruit was called orange or a similar word by the 13th century throughout europe while the first appearance of the word orange for color derived from the fruit doesn't appear until after 1500 while linguists are not certain most of them think that before 1500 there wasn't a word for the color orange at all and old english referred to the color simply as yellow red back in europe the fruit continued to spread the more northern climates of europe are too cold for growing oranges but that didn't stop the wealthy from finding a way to get their orange fix the first orangery a greenhouse built to protect fruits like oranges from the cold was built in italy as early as 1545. they became popular following the end of the 80 years war in 1648 as countries like france germany and the netherlands began getting regular shipments of exotic fruits from asia in the new world by far the most impressive orangery was built by louis the 14th to house his thousands of orange trees the versailles orangery completed in the 1680s would remain the largest of its kind until modern greenhouses began to appear in the 1800s the building wasn't just meant to house exotic trees but to impress visitors and serve as a visual reminder of wealth and power orangeries were extensively decorated and meant to entertain guests in the coldest months fires would be lit inside to keep the temperature high enough as he grew old the king had orange trees put in silver pots throughout the palace to perfume the whole building with the scent of citrus blooms orange is a fruit and a color has an interesting connection to the famous house of orange nassau still the royal house of the netherlands the german nassau house inherited lands and political power in the netherlands renee of shalom orange son of the head of the nassau house took over his father's position as scott hodgler of holland zealand and utrecht in 1540. renee had inherited the title prince of orange from his mother's childless uncle the house of orange takes its name from the principality of orange based around the city of orange in southern france the town was founded by members of the roman second legion in 35 bc as arusio named after a local celtic god the name russio seems to have been corrupted and inflated to the french orange the city may have conflated the names due to a connection with oranges which in the middle ages were transported from spain through the city on their way north the house of orange otherwise had no connection to either the fruit or the color until william of orange also called william the silent began fighting for dutch independence in the 1500s it was during this time that the house adopted the color and it came to represent protestantism and the house of orange fought on the protestant side during a number of wars of religion by 1577 william took a tri-color flag of orange white and blue as his own later william iii of orange became the king of england with his wife queen mary in 1689 and the color orange became an important political statement protestants in catholic majority ireland became known as orange men and the color orange remains symbolic of the dutch monarchy and the netherlands in general the orange free state in south africa took its name from the house and used the color in its flag and the flag of new york city has an orange stripe in honor of its history as a dutch colony in england oranges took on a different cultural heritage in the form of marmalade marmalade's origins lie with the quince fruits similar in appearance to a pear that was turned into a paste and imported from the iberian peninsula the word marmalade likely comes from the portuguese word for quince marmello it isn't clear exactly when oranges were first used in marmalades but a recipe for orange marmalade exists from at least 1677. it seems that with quince paste came barrels of sockets whole pieces of oranges and other citrus fruit peels that were preserved with sugar marmalade came to refer to any kind of fruit preserve and only took on the specific meaning in england of a citrus preserve much later there is a legend in dundee scotland that marmalade was invented by janet kyler mother to james kyler who ran a confectionary shop in seagate the story goes that a spanish ship showed up in dundee harbor seeking refuge from a storm ship was running behind was carrying some bitter seville oranges which were close to rotting kyler bought the cargo and his mother boiled the peels combine them with sugar to create marmalade well it has been definitely proven that they did not invent marmalade the kylers and their descendants played an important role in the popularization across the british isles janet does seem to have added solid pieces of the peel creating chip marmalade their company became james kyler and son and produced possibly the first commercial marmalade marmalade became a popular part of a british breakfast and remains the favorite food of paddington bear in america the success of the sweet orange industry can largely be attributed to a single type of orange the navel orange almost all citrus trees are infertile and the creation of hybrids and mutations have made the taxonomy of the various fruits very complex in general orange trees are grafted using pieces of existing trees and grafting them onto other rootstock naval oranges were born in a monastery in bahia brazil the result of a genetic mutation attributed to a single tree the naval orange gets its name from the growth of a second fruit at the apex which protrudes slightly to appear like a human navel the bahia orange had some unique characteristics it's seedless has a thicker skin making it ideal for transport and it's well suited to more northern climates the bahia orange was acquired by washington dc grower by 1871. two of those first trees were sent to elizabeth tibbetts a progressive activist for freedom and women who moved to california to become a pioneer of the town of riverside california tibbetts watered her trees with dishwater and nurtured them to health when the first fruits which got the name washington naval oranges were displayed at a fair they immediately demanded attention over the next decade tibbetts sold buds to other growers and became the dominant orange type in southern california by 1900 the bahia was introduced in florida in 1835 but wasn't successful until the 1870s interestingly at the time orange juice was not a popular commodity while oranges have been used for jews for centuries it requires fresh oranges and it was difficult to transport the juice any distance because it quickly spoiled in 1893 growers in southern california formed a co-op which became the sun-kissed growers inc albert lasker called the father of modern advertising took the sun-kissed account at the time overproduction was forcing growers to actually cut down orange trees but lasser began the drink and orange campaign selling tencent juicers to encourage buyers to juice their own fruits with the advent of pasteurization and the development of refrigerated rail cars orange juice became a sensation frozen orange juice from concentrate took a little longer for most in the 1920s orange juice came in a can didn't taste very good because pasteurization ruined most of the flavor by 1941 a very different issue presented itself soldiers were sent to war with vitamin c rich packets of lemon crystals but they tasted so bad soldiers wouldn't eat them meanwhile cooperatives in florida began growing more oranges at the best of the government in an attempt to cushion the effects of rationing canned orange juice was brought by the government as a replacement for the living crystals but the government hoped that a better alternative could be created during the war florida cooperatives advertised the importance of vitamin c and surpassed california's largest producer of citrus roots by the end of the war the national research corporation with the support of the government and florida orange producers had invented orange juice from concentrate this is an orange a choice tree ripened beauty the kind snow crop picks right at the peak of perfection to make snow crop frozen orange juice researchers found that after boiling oranges had lost its flavor but by adding a little bit of fresh juice afterward it could be significantly restored this process of cutback was patented in 1948 and dubbed minute maid perhaps the greatest irony of oranges is that they're grown in tropical zones where it's warm year-round that the right fruit is green and not orange that has nothing to do with the fruit's ripeness it has to do with chlorophyll which is what turns all plants green but when oranges are subjected to cold weather like they are in the united states in the spring and in the fall they usually turn orange however oranges grown say primarily in the summer and the us can still be green and in the us that means that they are deliberately turned orange using a number of different methods today sweet oranges come in a number of different varieties things like tangerines and valencias and blood oranges and clementines but they are all descendants of those fruits that were deliberately cross-bred in asia thousands of years ago that have so shaped cultures and history and even our landscape i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets of forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 241,578

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, food history, fruit, orange, oranges

Id: LdVJsy9bwqw

Length: 14min 15sec (855 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 16 2020