Citrus Season

My mother must have had a deathly fear of scurvy, as she and Linus Pauling were great believers in Vitamin C. I think I had OJ every morning of my life from the moment my pediatrician okayed it 'til the time I left for college. For several years, we used the morning OJ to wash down the cod liver oil pill she also insisted upon and woe betide the child who kept that little round squishy gel capsule in the mouth too long, arguing against the need for it, because if you didn't swallow it quickly it melted, flooding the taste buds with fish oil. We tended to be persuasive (argumentative) children - you'd have been forgiven for thinking we were all going to be lawyers - but the Fish Oil Fear shut us up pretty quickly.

We also always got the traditional orange in our stockings on Christmas morning, one more opportunity for the Good Mother to slip in a little vitamin C and, as we grew old enough to drink alcohol, she introduced us all to Screwdrivers and Mimosas.

My early indoctrination seems to have stuck - I can't wait until the fruit appears, shiny and heavy for it's size, with most of the dimples filled out from the juicy goodness within. Oranges, tangerines, grapefruits, tangelos, not to mention my favorite lemons - I can't think of a better way to start a day, spark up a salad or complement a dinner.

No fear of scurvy in my current household, either, thanks to my early training and the juicy season of citrus!