FIELD AND GROVE MAGAZINE
Profiling Southwest Florida’s Agribusiness Community

...who doesn't?

My favorite time of year came and went in just a matter of few short weeks. I am, of course, referring to early spring in Southwest Florida when each day ends just as it began, with the pungent fragrance of orange blossoms wafting through the house carried on a cool breeze.  

Resourceful individuals have tried, without much success, to 'capture' the blossom's true aroma. I've bought more than my share of orange-scented products and have concluded aerosol room sprays are too strong and perfume is well, just too sweet. Man might outsmart Mother Nature every now and again (this month's profile serves as an example), but when it comes to replicating the smell of an orange blossom, we fall woefully short. 

Also worth noting is the fact that the smell of orange blossoms (found only in groves I should add), can make one do strange things. Each morning, while driving into LaBelle this past month, I opened the sun roof to get the blossoms' full effect, slipped Garth Brooks into the CD player, and enjoyed the rites of early spring. I drove a bit too fast, sang a bit too loud, and enjoyed myself more than I should have considering I was going to work. But that's how spring and the much anticipated bloom of the Florida orange affect me every year.

And it’s not just the gradual loss of the orange blossom fragrance that I lament as we approach May. But the cool breeze that requires a sweater be worn outside in the evening or could bring a chill to the air in the morning has dissipated too. Soon the heat of summer will be upon us regrettably signaling the closure of the open sun roof and the turning down a notch of the radio.

But, of course, there’s always next year.

By Cindy Cutright

Cindy Cutright has spent the better part of the last 25 years engaged in marketing and advertising in Southwest Florida. And though her background is in print media, her embrace of the online publishing concept has been admirable to say the least.