Summary of our amazing trip to Jorge Ochoa’s orchard!

July’s Passion Fruit Extravaganza turned out great.  Thanks to Jorge Ochoa’s abundant generosity, it was just as fun, popular, delicious, informing and exciting as it sounded like it would be.

We began under a large shade tree with a bountiful selection of food and drinks including pastries, hot passion fruit tea

and five coconut cream pies. (Even Bruce got all he wanted!).

We toured the gardens, sampled fruit from some of the plants, and if you wanted a cutting of something, there were two designated scion-takers ready to help. Then we went inside and Jorge provided a presentation of passion fruits he has been impressed with. Then finally, as promised, we went to the propagation greenhouse. For everyone who was willing to get their fingers dirty, we tested our skill at transferring little seedlings in dirt popsicles over to take-home bags. The root systems were still fragile, so this was tricky! There were four varieties: (1) a purple one similar to Frederick but from Australia, (2) Passiflora Ligularis (“Sweet Granadilla” — sometimes found in Hispanic markets), (3) a yellow-gold variety Jorge found in Peru, and (4) a yellow variety Jorge found in Westminster (the location is a trade secret). According to Jorge, all four are very sweet, without any of the bitterness that some passion fruit have. If you got any seedlings from this event, please keep track of what happens with them. We want to give Jorge an update in a couple of years about everyone’s growing experience. How did your plants do? What made them happy? What killed them? By helping him with these details, you’ll be helping other growers in the future. And for those of you who got Ligularis seedlings, remember to keep their roots cool!

Thank you, Alan, for arranging this field trip and writing this summary.

July 8th field trip: Passion Fruit Day with the amazing Jorge Ochoa!

We have a very special treat lined up for July 8th. A field trip to visit passiflora expert and explorer Jorge Ochoa. Jorge travels to tropical jungles and remote  village fruit markets to discover new varieties of yummy and/or breathtakingly beautiful passion fruit. And he is going to share what he has learned with us.

If you have never heard him, Jorge is one of the most passionate, informed and funny speakers ever. It is no accident a photo of one of his lectures to us is featured on the crfg.org site to illustrate Meetings.

For insurance reasons, this is limited to WLA chapter members only.  But of course joining is only a couple of clicks away.

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