Originally published at: Tractor with bat wings shakes orange tree | Boing Boing
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Kind of makes me wonder why they planted bitter sour oranges…
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Unfortunately, that particular variety of orange is bitter and sour, not meant for consumption, just decoration
From memory they’re Seville oranges, so although they’re not good for eating they make wonderful marmalade.
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And violence.
Wait. Valencia has a tomato battle. The orange battle is in Ivrea, Italy.
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January is the month of marmalade-making for my Mum, that is where those oranges go.
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They also have a ridic am’t of vitamin C. When we visited Jamaica, I took a big insulated bottle everywhere, filled with water and some Seville orange (locally pronounced Civil arnj) juice. Tangy!
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You’d never be able to use Eddie Izzard’s excuse; “sorry, can’t come into work; got scurvy. Yes, I live on a houseboat.”
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Noa risk o’ catchin’ scurvy pon de island, mon 
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Orange trees in the streets are common here in Catalunya too and they are quite edible. We’ve made delicious marmalade from Barcelona street oranges. These machine are used to harvest other fruits & nuts, like walnuts & olives. They’re great fun to watch. I’m not sure that they’re gentle enough for soft fruits like peaches or apricots.
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FUN FACT: Seville’s streets are chock full of those orange trees (they smell great), the town council picks all the bitter oranges and sells them to the United Kingdom’s marmalade industry.
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That is simultaneously the most efficient and least efficient method of gathering fruit I’ve seen. If those are sevilles, there’s about a couple hundred bucks worth on the ground if those were in a store in Canada.
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that particular variety of orange is bitter and sour, not meant for consumption
Marmalade, surely!
(And of course, @Immutable_Mike @anon33176345 @Ashen_Victor all beat me to it. Keven Reome - who still cannot be @'ed here - may wish to expand on his original post.)
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Now who’s gonna sweep up after it? You kids and your toys! If I step on one more of your oranges you leave around on the floor I swear you’re grounded for good.
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I once had cause to buy a 50 lb bag of crushed walnut shell (an optimal filling for juggling balls, as it neither crumbles into dust nor changes weight in times of humidity). What is it ordinarily for, I asked the seller. Apparently these tree-shaking machines grab them while wearing a sort of glove filled with crushed walnut shell, so as not to hurt the tree. Amusing to hear they also harvest walnuts; the circle of life.
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In addition to marmalade, Seville oranges are used a lot in Yucatecan cuisine. The juice can also be used to make a very good margarita.
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I assume there’s a follow-up part of the process where a human worker with a wide shovel or something gets the ones that bounced out onto the ground.
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Na na na na na na na na na na na na na . Tractor!
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