Citrus built Mount Dora, froze out in 1894, and never fully came back. Until now. Small groves and backyard trees are having a moment, and chefs are using fruit you can’t buy at Publix.
Start at the Saturday Farmers Market in Donnelly Park. November to April you’ll find Satsumas, Meyer lemons, and weird hybrids like Sugar Belle tangelos. The growers are usually third-generation Lake County families. They’ll tell you which tree survived the 1989 freeze and which one the deer like.
Restaurants caught on. 1921 uses local calamondins in a beurre blanc. Pisces Rising does a charred grapefruit salad in winter. The Olive Oil Company presses a limited “Mount Dora Blend” with local Hamlin oranges in the EVOO. Even the breweries are in: Wolf Branch Brewing ran a blood orange wheat last year that sold out in a week.
You can taste the comeback yourself. U-pick is back at small farms like Showcase of Citrus, 20 minutes out. They give you a clippers and a bag and turn you loose. Best time is January — fruit is sweet, weather is cool, and the trees are loaded.
Local tip: Old houses downtown still have 80-year-old trees in the side yard. Owners put out boxes of free fruit by the sidewalk when they can’t eat it all. If you see a box marked “Free,” take two and leave a thank-you note. That’s the Mount Dora citrus economy. It’s not big, but it’s personal.