Great visit with Kevin @thecityman!

Just returned home from visit to @thecityman (Kevin’s) orchard. What a real treat it was!! First of all I had an absolute wonderful time visiting with Kevin and seeing his very impressive orchard of 120 or so fruit trees! Just amazing!!
As you can imagine from his politeness, passion and friendliness on this great site Kevin is very much the same in person. Humble and kind are certainly his make up no doubt and he is a very knowledgeable fruit grower. Do not let him fool you! He verbalizes sometimes to us on a this site about how little he knows. Not true whatsoever. He knows what he is talking about especially when it comes to all the varieties of different fruits he grows. We had a great visit and tour. I loved it!
His peaches where absolutely stunning in taste and appearance! Phenomenal job Kevin!! My first ever ripe peach off the tree and I really haven’t tasted anything better than that!! My wife just tried one as well and she is very impressed. She loves the dark grapes too! Very much so and of course I have forgotten the name! I will have to get the name again for you and grow some for her.
I also tried my first PawPaw as well. A wild one and it was really good. Tastes like many described here mango and banana mix. Better than I guessed they would taste.
It was also great to see Kevin’s excitement at the discovery of some Pawnee Pecans coming in! His Persimmons looked amazing too! He has some great pears in great shape and his Apples are equally impressive. Especially his Rome Apple (I believe the name was).
I certainly didn’t take enough pictures. I’m not the best picture taking guy out there. I would rather spend more time conversing. :slight_smile: So sorry about that all.
Kevin only lives 50 miles away so it was way overdue for me to visit. I certainly want to make it an annual ritual and look forward to having Kevin come down and visit us here in Clarksville area. The drive down through all the small Tennessee towns is always a real treat too and Kevin lives just outside such a quiet little TN town. Oh…I almost forgot Kevin has a very cute Brittany Spaniel dog. This guy was full speed all over the place! Neat to see! We need a few more pics of him on here Kevin as well as your amazing fruit trees. It is an impressive site! Thank you so much for the visit and the box of peaches/grapes. We also had an amazing treat Kevin made up consisting of Icecream and cooked in BBQ peaches. Super yummy!
I’m probably missing something no doubt but bottomline it was so great to meet Kevin and see what he has worked so hard to build. He has done terrific! I can only hope in a few years I have half as good as orchard. Thanks again Kevin so much!! Look forward to next time!!

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Sounds like a great visit. I’ve always enjoying seeing the pictures he posts and his generosity toward neighbors, coworkers, friends, etc. I’m sure he’s given away a lot more fruit that he’s personally eaten. And I agree, he’s more knowledgeable than he makes himself out to be.

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I wish I lived near Kevin. I’d be a regular visitor esp. during harvesting time :):joy:

Did you take pics of his Dragon Tear pluot tree and fruit? I’d love to see them.

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i’m jealous…

katy

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I didn’t take a pic of it! I was too busy gabbing about it. Real wonderful looking tree! We had a good conversation about it. He really likes it and it’s a real good story.

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Yes, the story behind it is interesting. A wonderful find for Kevin.

When I visited other forum members, I was in awe of what they were growing and busy talking, too. Not really thought about taking pics until after I left!!!

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Thank you so much for the kind words and wonderful trip report. It would be easy to reciprocate. Zack is one of those guys that within 5 minutes of meeting him, you feel like you’ve been lifelong friends and have no doubt you will be close friends from that day forward. Just a good person- EXACTLY the kind of person you hope everyone here is. Eager to learn, passionate about fruit, down to earth guy with no pretenses. What he didn’t tell you is that he came bearing gift! He gave me an incredible jujube tree and of course I’ve already forgotten what type he said he thinks it may be?

@mamuang you should know with me he didn’t have time to take pics. ha. And I probably should apologize to you Zack- just like my long posts I’m famous for, I was talking a mile a minute and didn’t give you a a chance to get a word in edge wise. I was so excited to have a fellow fruit grower that I was just babbling away- didn’t realize until later that I didn’t even offer you a drink! ha.

But seriously, for everyone here, please allow me to STRONGLY encourage all of you to invite those people from Growing fruit . org who live near you to come visit. Doesn’t matter how large or small your orchard is. It is so much fun sharing your passion, showing your trees, and just talking fruit with someone who shares the love of this hobby. We’ve all seen that blank stare on friends, family, co-workers, etc when we try to explain how excited we are about our new tree or first fruit or whatever. With fellow growers it isn’t like that. I hope, and suspect, that most of them will be as nice and fun to talk to as Zack was.

BTW, My favorite part was being able to share a few things he/you hadn’t tried before…especially the Paw Paw!!! I was so glad you liked it- I’ve met plenty folks who didn’t! Thanks again for coming, and I hope others here will pay attention to how much we enjoyed your personal visit and we will see more trip reports in the future. Remember folks, there is a nice map here that shows exactly where everyone’s orchard is so it’s easy to find those near you. :slight_smile:

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Oh it was a good old time Kevin! No time for drinks when we have all that fruit to check out and talk about! And no you didn’t talk to much at all. It was perfect!

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Hey @thecityman Kevin, this was the Jujube sucker I shared with you. More info on it below.

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Hi Kevin!
It’s Julie from your craigslist post. Just wanted to thank you a million times over for taking the time to email me and direct me to this site.
I am so excited to continue my fruit and nut journey!
You will hear from me regularly I think!
Again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you!
Julie

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I’m so glad you made it here, Julie. From what you said in our e-mail exchanges and knowing your growing love for fruit growing, I’m certain you will really enjoy this web site and the people here. You’ll spend more time than you should, but its absolutely amazing how much knowledge is here and how willing people are to share it. Meanwhile, if I can be of further assistance, then by all means let me know. And if you want some fig cuttings or any other scion wood this winter, just remind me and I’m happy to help.

One last thing, as a new member you really should post a brief introductory paragraph about yourself, what you grow, what you want to grow, how you got into fruit and nuts, and so on. It’s a great way to introduce yourself and open dialog with others- including several folks here who are from Tennessee. Here is where you should go to do that: scroll to the bottom and click the blue “Reply”.

You’ll quickly figure out how to get around this site and how things work. I’m happy to see you here!

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