The annual harvest of Hemet’s odd and hardy Florida Avenue sour orange crop began Wednesday to prevent the tart fruit from falling to the sidewalk and becoming a slippery, rotting hazard.

The fruit that looks as delicious as a navel orange but tastes more like a lemon was discarded with green waste to become compost.

Kris Jensen, Hemet’s public works director, said people often ask why the sour oranges aren’t given away. They do, after all, have some culinary uses.

She said she is open to the idea of making oranges available in the future. She said city officials would need to be confident that picking and eating the fruit would be safe.

I welcome readers’ ideas about how the fruit could be given away and used. I have a few thoughts. I’ll share the ideas soon.

The picking by city street crews ends the comedy of unsuspecting people helping themselves to oranges only to discover their bitter taste.

“We get a charge out of it,” said Jim Will, a clerk at 64-year-old Pierce Plumbing.

Seville sour oranges grow along Florida Avenue in front of the store. He said that last Saturday a gentleman in a BMW parked, grabbed oranges and escaped with his sour surprise.

“We see people look around to see if anyone is watching and then get the oranges,” he said “They look like they think they are getting away with something.”

Nick Jones, the sort-of retired founder of Miller-Jones Mortuary, likes the appearance of the trees in front of the funeral home nearly as much as the expressions of unsuspecting pickers who sample the oranges.

“I laugh every time I see someone take an orange and bite into it,” he said. “It’s a real pucker upper.”

The trees were planted during the 1960s along Florida Avenue on Hemet’s west side because they were hardy, not for their fruit’s taste. There also is a small planting along Gilbert Street between Acacia and Mayberry avenues.

In the Valle Vista citrus orchards to the east of town, trees are watered by farmers for 24 hours at a time and fertilized.

The Florida Avenue trees are not so pampered. Most grow from small, square openings in the concrete sidewalk. They are not irrigated or fertilized unless a nearby merchant does the job.

Despite the neglect, the trees grow robustly. Gregg Holyoak, the city’s acting street supervisor, was modest when told he might be the best Seville sour orange farmer in the world.

“I didn’t do anything,” he said.

The annual harvest begins when the oranges start to fall to the sidewalk. In the past, Boy Scouts, high school students hired by the city and street crews handled the picking.

The city committed “orangocide” some years in the past by spraying blossoms so they wouldn’t become fruit. They ceased the practice when it proved to be ineffective and too costly.

The picking that began Wednesday should be complete by Thursday evening or Friday.

Much of the picking already was done by people taking oranges. The oranges that remained on trees Wednesday were higher than arm’s reach. The low-hanging oranges were gone.

Some likely were grabbed by people who were unaware of their bitter taste. Others might have been picked by people who knew that they can be made into marmalade and used to marinate. Some people substitute them for lemons in baked goods and drinks.

Holyoak said city officials do not authorize or encourage sour orange picking. They also do not get upset or do anything when they are taken.

“It’s not a big deal,” he said. “It’s not like we are going to call the police.”

Contact the writer: bpratte@pe.com or 951-368-9078