WESLACO, Texas — The Texas citrus harvest is producing some smaller fruit, and Rio Grande Valley grocer Odell Ruiz has seen enough to declare a breakthrough in school lunches. He selected a particularly modest orange from a grower’s box, put it on an overturned coffee saucer and announced that parents could now buy a more precise serving of fruit.
He intended to sell it by the orange. His nephew offered to check what the store charged by the pound. Ruiz asked the boy to keep an open mind about how many different ways a grocer could use the same scale.
The Texas Citrus Harvest Turns Up Smaller Fruit
Texas A&M AgriLife’s Texas citrus harvest report describes undersized fruit as harvest begins and a good outlook for yields. Fruit size and total output can move in different directions. A tree can produce a lot of fruit and still leave each individual orange with what a shopper might call a modest presence. Depending on grade and buyer specifications, size can make a difference to the grower even when the fruit eats just fine.
Grower Ro Mendoza told Ruiz that the orange in the display had spent the same amount of time becoming an orange as the larger one beside it. It took a surprising amount of effort to grow the thing and a remarkably short time for Ruiz to put it on a saucer and double its self-esteem. Mendoza asked whether the orange would now qualify for a larger payment. Ruiz said he’d have to see how the launch went.
The Lunchbox Test Has One Unpaid Consultant
Ruiz invited local parents to compare the fruit. A fourth-grader picked up a small orange and declared it superior because it left more space for a cookie. His mother remembered that the orange would also fit through the little divider in his lunch container. His father asked whether they could trade in the container for one that would open without help from the school custodian.
When comparing bagged and individually priced citrus, check the price per pound or weigh the fruit you’d actually take home. A small piece can be handy for lunch, for a snack or when somebody needs exactly one orange’s worth of enthusiasm at the end of a long day. For juicing, see how much usable fruit the money buys. The display may tell you plenty about the mood the grocer was in when he put it together.
By closing, Ruiz had moved most of the small oranges. He was designing a cardboard holder for three of them when Mendoza came in with a bigger box. It contained normal-size oranges. Ruiz examined them for several minutes and finally set them down by the register as a premium family size. Mendoza asked how they differed from yesterday’s oranges. “Yesterday,” Ruiz said, “we didn’t have a family size.”
The orange on the saucer sold at closing. The saucer stayed behind to consider its own rebrand.
Last Updated on November 15, 2026 by Alan Nafzger