HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Parkesdale Market in Plant Metropolis has extra to supply than simply the well-known strawberries, shortcake and milkshakes.
Contemporary Florida oranges are a cash maker too. Prior to now, they accounted for a foremost income for the historic farm stand.
“Citrus was all the time our quantity two crop for years and years and years,” mentioned proprietor Jim Meeks.
However proper now, the market’s machine that cleans and luggage contemporary citrus is quiet virtually on a regular basis, and Meeks says that’s as a result of orange suppliers can’t provide a gradual quantity of citrus to his market.
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“I usually do 200 bins every week of oranges, and now I’m fortunate to do 20 every week. It’s actually a 90% drop,” he mentioned.
What’s occurring at Parkesdale illustrates the troubling projection in a brand new U.S. Division of Agriculture report.
In response to the division, January’s Florida citrus forecast is down 10% from the already-dismal forecast in December.
Final yr’s Florida orange harvest was the worst since World Conflict II, and if the brand new forecast proves true, 2023’s harvest could possibly be even worse.
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“If realized, this will probably be 56 p.c lower than final season’s ultimate manufacturing,” the report warns.
Matt Joyner, the Government Vice President and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, just isn’t shocked by the forecast.
“Whereas we’re fairly distressed concerning the injury that’s been inflicted on the business and the low crop, it’s to not be sudden,” he mentioned. “This isn’t sudden in any respect.”
Although researchers have made progress at mitigating its affect, a devastating illness often known as Huanglongbing, or citrus greening, has contaminated citrus bushes at most, if not all, Florida groves and decreased harvests for years.
In response to Joyner, nonetheless, Hurricane Ian is usually guilty for this yr’s poor projections.
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“That was a storm for the ages,” he mentioned. “The scale, the scope of that storm, the facility of it, the way in which it sat on prime of a number of the best citrus counties within the State of Florida, there’s little doubt that it had an amazing affect on our crop this yr.”
Joyner mentioned — due to the resiliency of Florida growers — Florida orange juice will stay on grocery retailer cabinets throughout the USA, however at Parkesdale, proprietor Jim Meeks warns it should probably price extra.
“We had been actually hoping for a bounce-back yr, and we simply didn’t get it,” he mentioned.
At his market, a five-pound bag of oranges was $3 final yr. Meeks bumped the value to $4 and mentioned he ought to in all probability cost extra.
Joyner, nonetheless, believes the value remains to be a great deal for a product he mentioned remains to be distinctive.
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He mentioned if there was ever a yr the place the business actually wanted shopper assist by way of purchases of Florida orange juice and different associated merchandise, it’s this one.
“The Florida citrus business helps rural communities down the spine of the State of Florida,” Joyner mentioned. “We don’t have theme parks; we don’t have seashores in these rural communities. What we do have is agriculture, and we’ve citrus.”
SpaceX launched 21 Starlink internet satellites from Florida’s Space Coast early Monday morning (Dec. 23) and landed the returning rocket on a ship at sea.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft — 13 of which can beam service directly to cellphones — lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today at 12:35 a.m. EDT (0535 GMT).
The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth as planned, touching down in the Atlantic Ocean about eight minutes after launch on the SpaceX droneship “Just Read the Instructions.”
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The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rests on the deck of a droneship after launching 21 Starlink internet satellites to orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 23, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX)
It was the 15th liftoff and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Eight of those flights have been Starlink missions.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage continued hauling the 21 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, where they will be deployed about 65 minutes after launch.
Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky
Monday morning’s Starlink launch was the 129th Falcon 9 mission of 2024. About two-thirds of those flights have been devoted to building out the Starlink broadband megaconstellation, which current consists of more than 6,800 active satellites.
Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!
Florida State football had an embarrassing 2024 campaign where it finished with a 2-10 record. This is not the expectation of what the Seminoles are all about.
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Head football coach Mike Norvell understood the urgency as he could not allow the program to snowball into a laughing stock after a productive 13-1 season in 2023. Norvell was heading into a pivotal sixth season with his job on the line.
As a result, he went out and hired a ton of new coaches on his staff, including Gus Malzahn, Tim Harris Jr., Herb Hand, Tony White, Terrance Knighton, and Evan Cooper. This was uncharted territory for Norvell since he had never had to fire multiple coaches like that.
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Nonetheless, we were wondering how the Seminoles’ 2025 recruiting class would play out with new coaches as well as the struggling year in 2024.
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The recruiting class did well, and it finished with the 20th-best in the 247Sports Composite rankings (prospects can still sign in February). In this article, I want to highlight three of the most underrated signees from Florida State’s 2025 recruiting class.
The 2024 U.S. Amateur runner-up is transferring to Florida, he announced Saturday. The sophomore at Iowa, whose hometown is Naples, Florida, entered the transfer portal earlier this month, and he made his decision to join coach J.C. Deacon and the 2023 national champions come next fall.
Because of NCAA rules, Kent won’t be eligible to compete for Florida until the 2025-26 season, but he can finish his sophomore year with the Hawkeyes. This fall, he placed in the top 13 all four tournaments, his best finish being a T-5 at the Fighting Irish Classic.
And, of course, he has a tee time at Augusta National Golf Club in the spring.
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Kent will essentially be the fourth member of Florida’s 2025 signing class, which ranked second in the country on signing day. He’ll join a talented roster that includes Parker Bell, Mathew Kress and Jack Turner, though with new NCAA roster limits coming, there’s bound to be some unprecedented roster turnover in college golf before the start of the 2025-26 season.
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