When I was a little girl, my mom drove to Florida with me, my brother and my grandparents. I think I was six years old and we lived in Ohio, this was not a day trip. We were going to visit my cousins who lived in southern Florida. Given my grandparents age, my mom drove almost the entire time. I don’t remember a lot from this trip but I do remember the incredible sunshine streaming through the car windows, singing with my grandpa a song about a horse and seeing rows and rows of orange trees. The image of all those trees is so fresh in my memory I feel like I am in the car again driving to the sandy beaches.
One day, I hope to take my kids to Florida to see the orange groves for themselves but since I can’t do it today, at least I can give them something that tastes as fresh as my memory - Tropicana Pure Premium 100% Pure Florida Orange Juice.
Tropicana is one thing that our family can not live without. Even when we don’t have time for a full sit down breakfast we always have time for a glass of OJ and not the knock off brand either. I love how fresh their orange juice tastes and there is a reason for this - they use oranges from Florida!
Tropicana is the single largest buyer of Florida fruit, purchasing approximately 11.6 billion oranges from Florida each year from 22 different Florida counties, primarily in central and southern Florida. And, since, the oranges are coming from all over Florida with the different climates and soil types it means that the fruit reaches peak maturity at different times, allowing Tropicana to harvest ripe fruit throughout the entire growing season. It is a good feeling to know that Florida has been supplying oranges for Tropicana since the 1960s. And, yes, I am fully aware the trees I saw when I was little are probably original to Tropicana. I think about that trip whenever I see a commercial for Tropicana but also whenever I see an in ground pool. It always struck me as funny that my cousins had one when they lived so close to the ocean. It was in that pool I learned to swim or at least bob to keep from drowning. My uncle thought it would be funny to see me swim and threw me into the pool. I had not actually had a swimming class and since we live in Ohio, access to pools and the lake is limited to summers. I wailed, screamed and cried until someone fished me out. I did not see that pool again for the rest of the trip but like I said before what I remember most about that trip was the groves of oranges we passed to get to the pool of death...
There is one way I might be able to get the kids to see the orange groves - a contest! Tropicana is sponsoring a giveaway on Facebook to win 100 Florida prizes, including one-year-supplies of Tropicana (in the form of twelve 59 oz Tropicana Pure Premium containers) and a trip to Florida to visit an orange grove. A trip to F-L-O-R-I-D-A-! Click here to enter and for more details.
I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Tropicana blogging program, to earn My SocialMoms Rewards Points. The opinions and ideas expressed here are my own. To read more posts on this topic, click here.
