Happy (Original)🍊"Oranges & Lemons" Day! 🍋
This day rings back to the bells of St. Clement Danes, a 17th-century London church and it’s famous "Oranges and Lemons" nursery rhyme. While the rhyme is ancient, this specific holiday was born just over a century ago on March 31, 1920, to celebrate the restoration of the church bells, with local children receiving citrus as a natural, bright sweet (or tart!) "thank you." The official service moved to the third Thursday of March over time but the 31st remains the "OG" date for history buffs.
No surprise, the American adoption of this citrus celebration day got its start in the boardrooms. Not long after it was established, the U.S. citrus industry started to adopt the date in order to move more crates, and over time it became an unofficial food holiday for appreciators of these "sunshine fruits."
Beyond all the marketing, though, there’s a deep, foundational history of citrus here in the States. Perhaps no surprise again: African Americans played pivotal roles as the original stewards of citrus groves throughout the American South. Their labor and ingenuity helped establish these crops like countless others as key components of a massive global industry. Their brilliance as culinary innovators created the various and sundry applications of citrus fruits we thirst for to this day (think:“lemonade” as just one major example…).
Join my PATREON platform to learn more… like the story of the late 19th Century "Black Budders"—the technical masterminds whose grafting skills literally saved the Florida citrus industry from extinction after the 'Great Freeze' of 1894–1895…
⬆️ 📸 gallery photos above feature a plethora pics of edible sunshine from my iphone taken mostly in So. Cal —including yours truly pickin lemons from my Mama’s back yard tree…
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