Whenever visitors from the homeland (Philippines) come to Florida, they’ll always be treated to a trip to Gordon’s Grove in DeLand—one of those “u-pick” citrus operations dotting the Florida landscape.
If our guests are lucky, it’s strawberry picking time, too—which we do over at Vo-Lasalle Farms in De Leon Springs.
The orange (er, citrus) picking season at Gordon’s Grove is from October to June so when my brother-in-law came to visit in November after a business conference in Chicago, we hied off to the citrus farm.
The parking area’s big—the whole front lawn to be exact, which is meticulously maintained by the owner. In fact, when we were there, he was methodically scouring the lawn for overgrown grass. Methinks he was having a blast joy-riding on his riding mower. :) Helps him think, maybe.
Planted with 16 acres of citrus, Gordon’s Grove sits along a quiet strip on Hazen Road in DeLand. You can pick grapefruits, tangelos, satsumas, amber sweet oranges and red navels...and even take an ample sampling while picking.
On this November day last year, the ground was littered with citrus peels in varying stages of decomposition.
Picking is fun, and at $8 per 5-gallon bucket, you can easily bring home enough to last you—and your friends—through the week.
There's nobody manning the, er, front desk. Paying for the fruits you pick is based on an honor system, the money placed in a can.
They must get a lot of out-of-state and out-of-the-country visitors because their guestbook had place names from as far away as Southeast Asia (not just the Philippines, heh.)
We have lots of friends so we often tote home four buckets worth of the sweet citrus. And they are extremely sweet, my favorite among them the red navels and the satsumas.
When we were exploring the grove, we saw a bee farm that the owner maintained on the property. I guess, the scary bugs are necessary if we are to enjoy loads of fruits every picking season. :)
What’s best about picking oranges at Gordon's Grove is that you won’t have to rise super early—like awake-with-the-birds early—to get to the farm on time.
Gordon’s Grove is open from sunrise to sunset so as long as you can still see by the sun—except on a Sunday, when they’re closed—you’ll still have time to sample and pick their sweet oranges.
How to get there:
Gordon’s Grove
1624 Hazen Road, DeLand, FL 32720
Telephone: (386) 734-0620
Directions: 4 miles from center of town, off truck route 15A
(This is not a paid post.)
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