A Boy and his Cara-Cara Janurary 23, 2006

Dad is on the hood of the family Volvo – jumping up and down and cursing. I’m 18 years old, it’s the 4th of July weekend, and we’re having a grand old time.

Yesterday, I drove the family car into the back of a van full of seniors. The van was rock solid, but the front of the Volvo crumpled. As the six seniors emerged, each took turns glaring at me like they had caught me streaking through their backyard painting mustaches (in watercolor) on their plastic pink flamingos (never really happened and no I do not have pictures to confirm this). One senior, in a cosmic case of insult to injury, emerged from the van with a thick white sock around his neck having a current case of whiplash to which I had just added. My insurance company was none-too-pleased. The only tow-truck driver I could get charged me triple because it was the holiday and then dropped me off at a garage full of bikers having a July 4th gathering and roasting a pig. Everyone was drunk and in leather, and I was wearing Izod (in my defense, it was 1987). Now, Dad is on the hood of the family Volvo, and I’m bringing him a sledgehammer. He’s about to try and smash the hood down and bend the fenders off the tires. “Dad!” I yell, “what are you doing you’re going to. . .” I paused. “Break it?” he said. I kept quiet while he bent the metal so the car would drive. As dad and I lumbered away and after the dark red color in his face turned a bit less fiery, he gave me sage advice: “If you want to salvage something out of a bad situation, you’ve got to be realistic with yourself when things go wrong. Readjust your thinking to the situation. Be ready for the opportunity to think differently.” Cara Cara’s, other than making me think about how I drova-drova into a fenda-benda, are fruit’s opportunity to think differently about citrus.

Cara-Cara

Cara-Cara navel oranges look like a regular navel orange on the outside but are pink on the inside. This piece of citrus is sometimes also referred to as a red navel orange. Cara-Caras are generally a low-acid piece of citrus with a taste that has a hint of sweet cherry. Cara-Caras are a sport off of a Washington Navel tree. This new variety was first found in Venezuela. One medium-sized fruit has 70 calories, 16 grams of carbohydrates (5% of RDA), 3 grams of fiber (12% RDA), 1 gram of protein, 6% Vitamin A, 120% Vitamin C and 6% Calcium.

Enjoy and be fruitful! – Chris Mittelstaedt chiefbanana@fruitguys.com