A fruit enthusiast with a penchant for rare/lost/forgotten/amazing stone fruits, particularly plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries, apricots and other fascinating hybrids.

The Banana Belt of Oakland is a great growing region and 100 years ago it was the center of a thriving cherry and apricot industry, though it is unclear how they were able to get enough chill hours, since 500 is pretty much the maximum here.

The goal of my “food forest” is to provide the longest fruit season possible of truly amazing fruit. May to March is possible with winter pears and persimmons and when everything starts to bear, the dehydrator will be getting quite a workout.

The collection of trees is planted to high density/small tree size to cut down on having too much fruit and not letting it get out of hand. As more rare fruits are found, more of the 32+ trees will be grafted over to include other varieties. And there are plans for 4-12 more next year.

While it doesn’t get so hot in Oakland (the hottest months are August and September, spilling into October), hope springs eternal that peaches and nectarines will work. I’m working on a way to provide the trees with the needed heat using what is already available. More to come later…

Japanese/Asian plums are what I grew up with, but I’m starting to explore European plums, too. Cherries found their way into the forest this year and 3 of the 4 are low chill, including the Cristobalina. There are mixed feelings about apricots, but since they grow well here, the right variety is being researched. The hope is to make mom an apricot jam that is equal to the one she had in Paris in 1970 that she still talks about.

Still learning, with so much to know. Kind of obsessed with Luther Burbank these days and what he contributed to our food chain. Also learning about grafting and can’t really believe what a miracle it is.