With the approach of winter, you’re being warned to get your heater ducts cleaned, check your car for anti-freeze and protect your pets and pipes.

Most important, you need to get your flu and pneumonia shots. That’s how the news flies today.

In the ‘olden days’, you just stuffed the holes in the north wall with old newspapers and settled in for the long haul.

We did have the knowledge of how good vitamin C was for you. This was before the days of instant everything you could buy in the grocery store and aisles and aisles of frozen goodies.

Oranges were somewhat plentiful and any kitchen worth its salt had at least one or two reamers in it. There was, and still is, nothing like the taste of fresh-squeezed orange juice. Granted, few have reamers anymore much less the time to sit around juicing but today’s instant and frozen concoctions don’t hold a candle to the old-fashioned way of doing things.

Oranges are coming into season in the lower parishes of the state right now and for miles and miles, roadside stalls are set up to sell the overflow, much like we see shrimp trucks along the highways in this part of the state or strawberry trucks in the spring.

Oranges are not just for juicing. There are those of us who wait for this season to put up as many jars of jelly and marmalade as the pantry can hold.

Reamers came in a variety of styles and colors. Some were countertop; some were handheld. Some were glass, some were metal and later they were made of plastic. Aluminum was also used but became pock-marked from the acid in the juice. Those weren’t too widely used. Handheld wooden ones were used mostly for juicing lemons. Most homemakers preferred glass.

Today, most juicers are electric and will pulverize the whole fruit on demand.

Regardless of your preference, don’t pass up the opportunity to partake of this year’s crop. They should be in your supermarkets as we speak.

Georgie Manuel.

November 6, 2011.