[CFC__VRWC]

Back in the early 1980's, you could drive US 27 in northern Polk and southern Lake Counties, and see nothing but vast citrus groves as far as the eye could see. The land there is ideal for citrus - high and dry and well drained (citrus doesn't tolerate damp roots very well).

The freeze of 1989 pretty much wiped out those groves, and the real estate market really started to take off in that area at about the same time. Many of the growers sold their property to developers and either got out of the citrus business entirely, or moved south. When you drive that stretch of US 27 today, all you see is rooftops and shopping plazas, with the occasional going-to-wild patch of citrus trees. It may well be the fastest growing part of Florida today, as Orlando steadily spreads out.

[the invisib1e hand]

I remember those days well, as in my teens I drove a truck from Tampa to Orlando and sometimes the coast every day. That's near the "Citrus Ridge."

Did you know that, prior to the big hurricane that hit, I believe in the '50's, Pinellas was the top producing county in the state (has much high and dry land)? Now, with the exception of a few tiny, tiny groves, the only citrus is the remnant in the backyard of the houses built on the former groves.