Author: Admin

All chapters received the following from the Trust Department at City National. If you are growing macadamia nuts, it might be worth investigating.  I have more photos available to anyone interested.  The deceased was a long time life member of CRFG.

<<Good afternoon,

We manage the estate of an exotic fruit and nut hobbyist who passed away in 2017.  This gentleman planted an extensive orchard on his property, including several dozen macadamia nut trees.  The property is now in escrow and will be sold within the next few weeks, so we are hoping to sell a Shaw Macadamia Nut Cracker/Sorter and a Husker (unknown manufacturer).  The cracker/sorter were purchased new from Mr. Shaw in November 2011 and were used for less than six years, so they are in very good condition.  The machines have not had any maintenance for the past two years, but my orchard manager has used them occasionally and they do work as expected.

We are removing all of the personal property at this time, and would prefer that these machines go to someone who could use them rather than having them dismantled and disposed of as garbage.  The machines are located in the Mountaingate community in West Los Angeles, west of the 405 and between the Skirball Center and the Getty Center.  The machines would need to be picked up one day next week (October 22-25), as we cannot deliver or pack and ship them.

The purchase price is negotiable.  I will be working away from the office tomorrow and all of next week, so please call my cell at (818) 631-6790 if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Wanda Rapp

City National Bank
VP, Sr Trust Real Estate Officer
555 S Flower St, 12th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071

wanda.rapp@cnb.com>>

There will be a pomegranate and persimmon tasting on Saturday, November 2nd at 10am.  It will be at Wolfskill Orchard Experimental Station in Winters, CA (4334 Putah Creek Road) For questions, contact jenny.smith@usda.gov

Reflections on the Spanish and California Industries by Dr. Ben Faber.

The village of Jete is in the far back of this valley near Almunecar.  It’s all cherimoyas with olives on the hillsides. And nearly all of the cherimoyas are Fino de Jete with lots of seeds, smooth skin, and they all come ripe at the same time with no hand pollination!

Pruning and pollination practices vary considerably both here and in Spain. This is partly due to differences in the “Mediterranean Climates” that are found in the two areas.  We’ll look at those factors, as well as how pruning and pollination are affected by differences in the two “cultural climates”.

Our speaker will be Dr. Ben Faber.  Ben is an advisor with the University of California Cooperative Extension in Ventura, where he specializes in soils, water, and subtropical horticulture.  He has a Ph.D. in Soil Fertility, and he maintains a blog and a newsletter that the bulk of our commercial citrus and avocado growers learn from.  Dr. Faber was going to give his presentation on “Cherimoyas in Spain” at the recent Festival of Fruit   However, unfortunately, he was so sick he couldn’t make it.  Please join us for this very special presentation!  We will be in the MultiPurpose  Room at the Culver City Veteran’s Memorial Complex.

(Description courtesy of Alan Caramatti, our brand-new Program Chair)

From our new Field Trip Chair Jane:

“On Saturday September 14 at 10 am, the WLA Chapter will visit the Patient Garden at the Long Beach Veterans Medical Center, 5901 E. 7th Street Long Beach 90822.  The garden’s purpose is therapy, rehabilitation, and enjoyment of the veterans. They have a mixture of vegetables, ornamentals and fruit trees; several structures provide for greenhouse, hothouse , and propagation space.

I was surprised that the several members I spoke to didn’t know of its existence; maybe I have had more injured Vets in my life. After the loss of the WLA  VA Garden I want to make sure we know about this one before it is ever threatened.  The will be no lecture-like tour but perhaps we could talk about land closer to us where we could make some contribution.

Please try to carpool.( At the next meeting I am going to have people clustered by neighborhood to facilitate carpooling in the future.)  I will bring our chapter’s big water jug with ice and lemons.  PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN CUP, a chair if you can, and fruit to share out of hand.

For a second activity, some carpools might want to go south to Westminster for supermarkets and other fruit markets.  Going north I suggest stopping the International Garden Center, 155 N Pacific Coast Highway, El Segundo 90245.  Sepulveda becomes N PCH in El Segundo.  I treat myself to a visit here when I take someone to LAX.  While there is nothing particularly International about it, they have a wide range of products: trees, perennials, fruits, vegetables, seeds, bulbs, and my favorite Annies’ Annuals.

(Enter the VA facility by the 7th Street entrance.   Veer to the right  and stay to the right making only right turns when a turn is necessary.  The garden is in the north/east corner of the campus and parking is on the ride hand side of the street . There is a water tower quite close  I always look up to verify my location.)”

Once again, we are heading down the driveway to convene  in my Back Forty where — at last — I will have  the time to explain what is actually going on there (the cherimoyas and papayas from spit-out seeds, the ridiculous bay laurels, the Pink Passion passiflora that is eating my house,  the Fire Crystal that is, hey,  growing new leaves).   There are also a ton of lemons, limes, tangerines and blood oranges, a monster Black Mission fig, an equally monstrous Saijo persimmon, several apples that will have just finished bearing, ditto the mulberry.  The loquats are long done, the litchi and sapodilla are still too young.  My  homemade beehive is behind a gate and faced in the other direction so no worries.

The Front Forty with my green fig trees, young Hachiya persimmon, another not so happy Fire Crystal, banana plantation and avocado mountains will be taped off because of the number of fragile new plantings and grafts there.  I can however explain most of it from the driveway and sidewalk and will lead small groups through if desired.  It and the adjacent parkway are  full of California natives and therefore butterflies, bees and birds, oh my.

Around 11, the vanilla ice cream will arrive (with bowls and spoons)  and we will share  all the sauces we have made from the fruits of our orchards.  Or actually any topping you want to bring.  If you happen to be lactose intolerant, you are welcome to bring whatever iced alternative you desire.  Yogurt will also not be shunned. Fun in the sun! (Thank you, Fang, for suggesting this.)

PS. There should definitely be some Gros Michel pups for our silent auction.

NOTE:  THE EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO JUNE 29TH! Check out the details and get your registration in pronto at festivaloffruit.org.  The line-up of speakers and tours is fantastic and the price for the three days  is truly amazing, including  free admissions to both the Huntington and the LA Arboretum during the event

Dr. Gorlitsky is a Senior Researcher at UCLA’s Center for Tropical Research as well as a lecturer in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (whose mantra is Moving Science to Action) As such, she is intimately engaged in efforts to combat everything from invasive species to mass extinctions. Her specialty of Tropical Ecology, however, intersects with our interest in exactly what is going on in our back forties. She will be lecturing to us on Coevolution, focusing on the interaction between the fig and the wasp.

Margaret’s friend Britten is currently a student in one of Dr. Gorlitsky’s UCLA classes and reports she is both an engaging and incredibly knowledgeable lecturer. This is definitely a meeting not to be missed.

This month we will visit Champa Nursery in El Monte. Jimmy Nguyen, the proprietor, has extended a kind welcome to us. Jimmy has over a hundred different varieties of tropical fruit trees in stock (on less than an acre!). Were you looking for that hard-to-find acerola cherry (Barbados cherry)? Jimmy has them! Want a new variety of black sapote? Jimmy has four varieties currently available! Were you anxious to try a sapodilla? Jimmy sells three varieties! He even has three varieties of mamey sapote! At Champa Nursery you will also find six different varieties of carambola, three varieties of canistel, an amazing eight varieties of jackfruit, a dozen varieties of mangoes, three varieties of longan, four varieties of lychee, five varieties of wax jambu, and many many more intriguing fruit trees. Go to their website and start your want list: https://www.champanursery.com. Carpooling is recommended.

Address: 4254 Tyler Ave, El Monte, CA 91311

Directions: Champa Nursery is on the corner of Santa Anita and Tyler Ave., next to the El Monte Airport. Take the I-10 Freeway east to El Monte. Take the Santa Anita Ave. exit (Exit 28) and turn left onto Santa Anita Ave. In just under 1 1/2 miles turn right onto Tyler Ave. Champa Nursery will be on your left.