Citrus by Mail, Worth the Wait

Citrus by mail? With all those supermarket bins full of fruit?

Nobody's suggesting you make a habit of it, but there are lots of reasons to treat yourself to the really good fruit available online or by phone:

· You can eat fruit at the height of its season. Many online citrus sites not only sell their fruit when it's due to come off the trees, but also help you order it with explanatory charts and lists.

· You have access to terrific fruit that would probably never make it to your local grocery or chain store -- either because it's top of the line and saved for this market, or because supermarkets don't want to spend the extra time and money required to stock specialty fruits.

· Fruit bought this way is fresh. "It hasn't been in a warehouse or a cooler in a packinghouse for three weeks," says Allen Cushman, whose family has been marketing Florida citrus since 1945.

This year's fruit crop was pummeled when four storms barreled through Florida, the world's largest grapefruit producer. On Oct. 24, when much of the fruit on the trees was too heavy to withstand the winds, Hurricane Wilma was devastating. Its path was particularly tough on the grapefruit groves and, according to Florida Citrus Mutual, Florida's largest association of citrus growers, took out 47 percent of the crop.

The Food section was curious about how this year's specialty crop fared, and ordered examples of citrus not regularly available in local stores. The fruit was ordered just before Christmas, requesting delivery dates in the first week of January. The growers don't guarantee delivery dates, but do try to accommodate their customers.

Of the seven we requested, two deliveries arrived within 10 days, three came within two weeks, and one, arriving after three weeks, was too late for our tasting. Another company took time off after Christmas and told us they could not deliver in a timely manner.

We sampled the fruit with two experts.

* * *

How do you recognize good citrus? It's not as easy as you'd think. Of course the fruit shouldn't look banged-up or bruised, but green or brown blotches on the outside don't reveal much about the inside. Weight is what counts. Citrus should be firm to the touch and heavy for its size. A weighty orange is more likely to be juicy than a light (dry) one. And stiffness can be a sign of frost damage.

When you cut into citrus, its aroma should always be appealing. A thin skin is a good indicator, too -- fruits with thick skin were usually developed for ease of long-distance transportation. As for the taste, that's somewhat personal. In general, citrus, like wine, is assessed by the intricacy of its flavor and also by the balance of sweet and sour (sugar and acid). Sweetness isn't necessarily a sign of good fruit, however, especially in grapefruit.