Oranges

Tyler Fisher has a simple breakfast ritual. Toast with butter. A glass of orange juice and no coffee. He's then prepared to face the 60 to 100 miles of daily driving that comes with his job. The Costa Mesa resident is used to paying high prices to fuel his car. Now he's paying more to fuel himself -- with orange juice. The average retail price of orange juice -- from fresh to frozen -- has increased in each of the last six months. As of Feb. 17, it was $5.

Florida will rebound from a bad citrus crop last season with a 30% increase in orange production this year, the federal government predicted. But major orange juice makers said consumers shouldn't expect prices to fall. The U.S. Department of Agriculture orange forecast for Florida is 168 million boxes, each weighing 90 pounds. Last year the state hauled 129 million boxes in its worst season since devastating freezes in the 1980s.

It's getting hard to grow oranges in the Sunshine State. Months-long droughts are broken by nasty hurricane seasons. Three diseases that kill and damage citrus trees and fruit continue to spread. Urban sprawl is taking over groves, and there are fewer acres of trees than at any time since 1988, when a wave of freezes crippled the industry. Growers will pick the harvest's first fruit this month, but some have already declared that Florida is in for a rotten citrus season.

Orange juice prices, already at historical highs, are expected to climb further as production in Florida's hurricane-ravaged groves plunges. But it's not just shoppers who will be affected: Juice makers such as PepsiCo Inc.'s Tropicana Products and Coca-Cola Co.'s Minute Maid, which get the vast majority of their juice from Florida, are facing a profit squeeze from rising domestic prices and margin-killing tariffs on what they import from Brazil. The U.S.

Is it trespassing when bees do what bees do in California's tangerine groves? That is the question being weighed by state agriculture officials caught between beekeepers who prize orange blossom honey and citrus growers who blame the bees for causing otherwise seedless mandarin oranges to develop pips. "Both sides are unwilling to give any ground, and both have valid points," said Jerry Prieto, a former Fresno County agricultural commissioner who has spent six months mediating the dispute.

A hulking, nameless creature lumbers among the citrus trees, its eight arms and eyes in constant motion, searching for its prey: oranges. Part robot, part tractor, the contraption is an unusual combination of one internal-combustion engine, four rubber tires, eight digital cameras, eight electronic arms and an excruciating number of computer algorithms that choreograph every movement.

THE best orange juice I've had has always seemed to come from a juice press. It's the flavor of high summer, like the essence of some supernal giant berry that just happens to have orange-colored juice, with a hint of aromatic oils from the peel to make it clear that this is a citrus fruit after all. All around town, at restaurants and bars such as the Hungry Cat in Hollywood, you see them squeezing oranges by hauling down on the big lever of a juice press.

People who have high levels of cholesterol may be able to drink their way to a healthier heart using sterol-fortified orange juice. Plant sterols are thought to limit cholesterol absorption in the intestines, thereby reducing the amount that could clog arteries. They were put in fatty foods such as margarine and salad dressings because scientists thought the fats would help the sterols be better absorbed.

The rotund, early ripening Hamlins and the yellowish, elongated Pineapples have all been picked. Soon it will be the Valencias' turn, and Mason G. Smoak plucks one of the smooth-skinned fruit from the tree and opens it with a serrated knife to see if it's ready. The orange, which gleams in the morning sun, is gorged with juice, and droplets explode into the air as Smoak cuts into the rind.