There was a time when oranges seemed like a foreign delicacy.
Some families used to put oranges under the Christmas tree and hang the peels on its branches, said Gary Mormino, the author of “Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida.”
Mormino will speak at the Matheson History Museum, located at 513 E. University Ave., at 6 p.m. today. His talk on the history of Florida oranges is part of the museum’s exhibit Liquid Gold: The Rise and Fall of Florida Citrus.
“I think we are becoming nostalgic about something we are losing, and I think people want to know more about that,” Mormino said.
Disease and declining popularity, he said, are causing orange groves to disappear, allowing Brazil to become the top producer. The free event is part of the local humanities series Imagining Florida: The Place We Call Home, said Peggy Macdonald, the executive director of the museum. She said a disease often referred to as citrus greening is infiltrating orange groves, causing the fruit to become green, misshapen and inedible.
If a solution to the disease is not found soon, Florida may lose much of its license-plate fruit.
“People view orange juice as something too sugary and decadent, but it used to be that that was the marketing of Florida: a glass of sunshine every day,” Macdonald said.
