Orange you glad?

Do you remember the old knock-knock joke:

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Orange.

Orange who?

Orange you glad I didn't say banana?

Seeing all of the orange trees along the road as we traveled through south-central Florida reminded me of that joke. From what I could see, orange trees are southern Florida's equivalent of corn fields in Nebraska! The groves were on both sides of the road and extended as far as I could see. To be honest, since the land in this area is flat as a pancake (somewhat akin to Nebraska) one can't see too far over all of the trees.

The orange production in Florida has suffered a huge decline in the last decade due to a disease called citrus greening (Huanglongbing) carried by a small Asian fly. The bacterium is deadly. There is no known cure. The infected trees' leaves yellow and the fruit is smaller, thick skinned and bitter. Eventually the tree dies.

Picture from the Internet

Since the inception of the disease in the US scientists have been working to develop a disease-resistant tree. New varieties of trees are now being planted to replenish decimated groves. 

Despite the decline in production, we saw a lot of trucks carrying heavy loads of oranges.

Picture from the Internet

We passed by a Florida's Natural orange juice processing plant. 

And saw more than one tanker carrying orange juice along the road.