april-2012

their fruit as such: To claim that
coveted title, citrus must be grown
in this narrow district, where
an underlying layer of coquina
limestone provides trees just the
right amount of minerals, and the
occasional cold snap sweetens
fruit to perfection. “You’ve
got to do a dance with
the cold,” says Doug
Bournique, executive
vice president of the
Indian River Citrus
League. “It creates a
better-tasting fruit.”
Fred Van Antwerp
was born in the
heart of the district
just a few years after that
federal decree, in a wooden
house with no electricity along
a gravel lane in Wabasso. His
father, Frank, fi rst planted citrus
on this land in the early 1950s.
“My dad’s a true farmer,” says
Van Antwerp, who, at 73, lives
just paces from the spot where he
entered this world. “I mean, he
truly loved the ground.”
In the ’60s, Van Antwerp’s
parents began selling fruit from
their front porch, the beginning
“Used to be you
could go down the road,
and just everywhere
you looked was beautiful
citrus, and farmers, and
people making their
living this way.”
of what would become Countryside
Citrus. Today, in a quaint
country store mere steps from
that porch, Countryside sells its
bounty of oranges, grapefruit and
APRIL 2012 41 APRIL 2012 41
tangerines, plus fresh-squeezed
juice that Van Antwerp blends
himself. It puts all carton-packed
imposters to shame: It’s like biting
into an orange, but with a combination
of sweetness and lingering
freshness that’s almost unbelievable.
The shop’s rural
surroundings, punctuated
with orange trees
and the sticky smell
of juice, make it easy
to imagine what the
whole district must
have been like when
Van Antwerp was a
high school student.
“Citrus was king,”
says Van Antwerp, who’s
known as Uncle Fred
now that his nephew, Rusty
Banack, and family have taken
over the growing, packing and
shipping business. “Used to be you
could go down the road, and just
everywhere was beautiful citrus,
and farmers, and people making
their living this way.”
GO MAGAZINE
LEFT: Al’s is one of the last
holdouts of hand-picked citrus
groves along Kings Highway in
what once was “wall-to-wall”
citrus stands. BELOW: Founded
in 1947, Hale Groves still
ships oranges, grapefruits,
honeybells and tangerines
nation-wide.