The last time Florida growers drove migration of citrus groves to another part of the Sunshine State was after the Great Freeze of 1894-95, which created ghost groves and caused banks to fail.
Before that winter, the citrus sweet spot spanned a swath of North Central Florida that included Gainesville, St. Augustine and up toward Jacksonville and the small hamlets in between. The Marion County town of Citra was named for its enviable produce, and there were others: Orange Lake, Orange Heights, Orange Springs, Satsuma, Orange Park, Fruit Cove, Mandarin and Fruitland Park.
After the Great Freeze, growers set their sights south, and the citrus industry South Florida became known for took off. Images of balmy breezes carrying the scent of citrus blossoms over rows of deep green dotted with orange orbs became part of South Florida’s zeitgeist. The undeveloped mosquito-curtained zones to the south had found a juicy gem and a place in state history.
Facing challenges in South Florida, growers have now doubled back, finding success farther north.
Along the Florida-Georgia line, small growers and family farms are cultivating citrus, specifically varieties of robust mandarin oranges. Through research, mutual support, and trial and error, growers are perfecting mandarins that thrive in colder temperatures and benefit from the semidormancy induced by the cold season. In 2017, they formed the Cold Hardy Citrus Association, a unique collaboration of citrus growers.
“Cold Hardy Citrus Association was formed to help the entire region, to establish a broad reach for small growers who wouldn’t be able to easily do so on their own,” says Kyli Lamar, who sits on the association’s board. “We want to support all citrus varieties and all growers in our region, and we see this as a model for all commodities. Because we are part of a region, we collaborate across state lines, which is kind of unique.”
Cold hardy does not mean cold resistant, but it does mean certain varieties are more tolerant of low temperatures. There are too many variables, Kyli says, to pinpoint the specific subfreezing temperatures at which the fruit will grow unscathed. A number of factors, including rootstock and the duration of freezing temperatures, can affect tree survival. The freeze over Christmas 2022 saw days of temperatures in the low 20s, and the resulting tree damage is still being assessed.
Building a Brand
To promote the many citrus varieties and educate consumers about the sweet-tasting mandarins that grow in lower temperatures, CHCA members needed a marketing plan. They could grow all the wonderful citrus they wanted, but if they couldn’t market it effectively, their efforts would be fruitless. The association secured a grant from the Florida Department of Agriculture to build a brand and help market members’ produce.
“We worked with Moxxy Marketing out of Miami to create our brand, Sweet Valley Citrus, which we just launched in 2022,” Kyli says. “They do a lot of work in agriculture, with grower-shippers and with food and beverage companies. Sweet Valley Citrus represents a region about the size of Illinois, not necessarily a valley, comprised of North Florida, South Georgia and South Alabama.”
Moxxy Marketing was a perfect fit. The company started in California’s Salinas Valley region, a tremendously productive agricultural area. Moxxy’s Miami presence, its agriculture marketing experience and proximity to the Florida citrus industry were just what CHCA needed. The goal was to create place-centered branding that consumers could recognize and trust, much like Fresh from Florida, Georgia Grown and wine regions such as Napa in California and the Willamette Valley in Oregon.
To tag their produce with the Sweet Valley Citrus brand, growers must be CHCA members and farm citrus in the association’s region. Growers encourage each other and collaborate rather than compete. The long game—success of the Sweet Valley Citrus region and the state’s citrus industry—drives them all.
Concern around Florida’s citrus is real, and Kyli says the Sweet Valley region makes good sense for sustaining the industry.
South Florida faces new challenges every year, including ubiquitous land development, hurricanes and citrus greening—an insect-spread disease that affects trees’ ability to process nutrients, resulting in fewer, smaller and sometimes sour fruit.
“We are not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Kyli says. “We continue to learn from our citrus neighbors to the south and build on their knowledge and best practices.”
Sweet Valley Citrus farms are small, ranging from 5 to 200 acres, with 30 acres the average size. Most are family operations. North Florida is less populated with plenty of farms and timberland, so groves do not abut each other. They are punctuated by towns, pecan groves, cattle, hunting land and farms with other agricultural products. Greening can’t spread as easily as it does in South Florida, where farms are hundreds or thousands of acres, all connected.
Branching Out
Kim Jones, owner of Florida Georgia Citrus in Monticello, is president of Cold Hardy Citrus Association. He says there is room for everyone, and he has forged relationships with California citrus growers, with whom Sweet Valley Citrus farmers compete for a place in the fruit market.
“Florida citrus has historically been juice citrus. California owns about 95% of the fruit market, the fruit people eat,” Kim says. “We want to change that. Our cold hardy fruit is so sweet. We did make a very small dent in the fruit market on the East Coast this year. We can have groves and groves of fruit, but if we don’t have a way to sell it, it’s pointless.”
Kim pulls the bumpy bulb off the top of a shiranui mandarin, an orange and green pocked curiosity—green because he had to rush to harvest before the freeze that hit North Florida at Christmas—and reveals easily separated sections of juicy flesh wrapped in a thick peel and buffered by spongy white pith.
“This here is the filet mignon of citrus fruit,” he says.
This ugly-on-the-outside wonder is a hand-held culinary dream—effortless to peel, a juicy seedless sweet gift to the palate. Looks really are deceiving.
Kim’s operation is mandarin-focused, including satsumas, tangos, marathons, 950s and the heavenly shiranui.
He ships citrus to the Northeast, and his Florida Georgia Citrus company supplies some major U.S. grocery chains. His satsuma juice is in local farmers markets, small shops and bakeries, and his Southern Juicys Satsuma mandarins are sold in Publix stores.
The work never stops for Kim, who retired after 48 years with John Deere.
“We test different varieties all the time,” he says.
Sometimes those tests are done on Kim’s property. Others are completed at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences North Florida Research and Education Center.
“When harvest is over, we’re in the groves every day,” Kim says. “The rest of the year is spent taking care of the trees. If you’re not in the grove every day, you’re going backwards.”
Kyli, whose family owns Florida Line Nursery in Monticello and operations in South Georgia, is convinced this new focus on cultivation and marketing citrus from the Sweet Valley region makes sense, especially for providing fruit to the East Coast.
“This is an opportunity to figure out the logistics,” she says. “This area’s citrus peaks at slightly different times than California fruit. For example, our shiranui are ready several weeks earlier than California’s, and some years they could be ready in time for the Christmas market. When you can pick fruit when it’s ripe on the tree, when it doesn’t have to travel far and can be eaten when it’s still fresh, people will taste how much better and sweeter it is.”
Born from challenges, innovation, collaboration and hard work, citrus—Florida’s sweet signature crop—is making history, once again.