♪♪ You would think that orange farmers who grew up surrounded by these trees, eating oranges their whole lives, might be a little tired of the classic fruit, but you'd be wrong.

[Mark Gillette] That's good.

[Melissa Burchett] There's just nothing better than a fresh orange.

I- That is my absolute number one.

Um, the navel is just super juicy and refreshing and has that orange flavor.

[Mark] You would think- I eat so many oranges all day long, but then at night, I still have to have a bowl of... of oranges.

So, let's see what that tastes like.

Oh, beautiful.

Mmm.

Really good, a lot of sugar.

They're ready.

Mark Gillette co-owns Gillette Citrus, along with his brother Jay.

They grow and pack a variety of citrus fruits, including Navel and Valencia oranges, as members of the Sunkist Cooperative.

The Gillette family has been farming citrus in California since the late 1800s.

That tradition continues today with Mark's son Greg Gillette, daughter Melissa Burchett and son-in-law Kevin Burchett all working for the family business.

[Mark] Just to watch them- They grew up just like I did, out in the orange groves.

You know, we... we... we- none of us have neighbors.

We live in the groves.

But to be able to take that and make a business out of it and do that for five generations, it's... it's pretty exciting.

[Melissa] My great-grandfather, his favorite quote was, "The best fertilizer is the grower's own footprints."

And truly, that is what we still go with today.

So, we're out here every single day, checking on the trees.

[Mark] ...and it's just about ready to go.

An orange tree won't produce fruit until it's about four years old, and even that is considered young.

It takes about 12 years before an orange tree is mature and in full production.

[Mark] And then those trees can be in the ground anywhere from 30 to 80 years old.

We have some trees in the ground, 80 years old.

But mostly, we'll change the varieties out about every 40 years 'cause there'll be newer varieties come along that people like, but you're kind of in for the long term when you make a decision to plant a tree, um, you're pretty much making a 40 year decision, a generational decision.

The Gillette family began farming oranges in Southern California, which at one time, was the heart of the citrus industry.

But that began to change after the World War II baby boom, with orange groves replaced by houses and freeways.

Many growers moved north to the San Joaquin Valley, including the Gillettes, where they found rich soil deposited from the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains.

[Melissa] Why is the fruit a little green on this side?

[Mark] You know, the fruit's always a little more colored on the north side of the tree, just because of where the sun is this time of the year.

[Melissa] California supplies 90% of the US's fresh citrus, and actually 70% of that comes from right here in the San Joaquin Valley, in the three counties that we are right, kind of, all in the middle of.

[Mark] Central California is amazing for growing citrus because of the weather.

I mean, we have these super hot summers that create sugar.

We have super cold winters that just gives us this flavor balance.

We- A good orange has a good balance of sugar and acid.

In fact, to harvest these oranges, we can't harvest them for Code of California until they have a certain ratio of sugar to acid.

But what differentiates from a lot of the places around the world, Florida included, and Mexico, is just- is we don't have that humidity.

The hard work comes when it's time to pick the oranges, as many as 600 per tree, starting in October and lasting all the way through June.

[Melissa] Every piece of fruit is picked by hand.

Um, you actually have to clip it.

You can't just pull it off.

Otherwise, it'll pull the stem and it could create mold.

And then, they're usually packed the day after they're picked.

So, it's a really fast process.

So, when someone's eating an orange in, you know, in a grocery store, know that that was picked just probably within the same week.

So, that's actually very cool.

Um, it's, uh, as fresh as we can possibly get it to you.

[Mark] Just almost there.

[Melissa] That's good.

[Mark] Yeah.

About 2 million pieces of fruit come through Gillette's packing facilities each day.

When they arrive, the oranges are washed and waxed to seal in moisture.

They're graded by a machine that takes 20 pictures of each piece of fruit before being further graded and sorted by workers.

Then, it's off to be packaged for their final destination, whether that's an American grocery store or a market in Asia.

[Melissa] This is a labor of love for everybody, from the grower to the crews that go into the groves.

We all live here.

So, we live with tractors going around us and we watch the trees grow and we're a part of it.

Everybody's involved in agriculture in our area, pretty much in the San Joaquin Valley.

And so, when you're buying an orange or a bag of oranges, you're supporting communities, and that's really important and special.

[Mark] We've seen an increase now in... in the navel consumption because I think people have realized- kind of missed eating oranges.

There's so many other fruits and varieties that have come from all over the world and people have kind of- it's gotten diluted and I think people realize just how good a flavor it is.

It's just amazing that something that good for you can taste that good.