REPORT FROM THE ROAD – MANATEE FRUIT CLUB’S MONTHLY MEETING & MEÑEGOWE FRUIT!!!: I drove out to Palmetto, near Bradenton, on Monday night to hear GREEN DEANE present a slideshow on wild edible plants to this rare fruit club. I learned a decent number of new things about wild edibles, my plant specialty, and this just goes to show that we can always learn new things! In appreciation, I presented Deane with a new copy of Arleen Bessette’s latest book on southeastern fungi.
It was nice sitting for a while and chatting with Darryl McCullough of SWEETSONG GROVES in Sarasota (also the club’s treasurer). He is continuing his monthly organic home orchard tours (check his Facebook page “sweetsonggroves”). I really want to take one of his tours soon as I never have and he is only an hour’s drive from my home.
Luckily, I won the first raffle drawing and grabbed a CHERIMOYA seedling.
I traded a krachai plant for a new SPINY YELLOW YAM with my friend Ali.
One of the high points of the evening was chatting with Jimmy from LEE’S VINEYARD in Dover, Florida. This fellow stood up during the meeting and showed us two ripe Central American CINNAMON APPLES, Pouteria glomerata (synonym P. hypoglauca) - Sapotaceae, that he tended. That piqued my interest as I love rare tropical fruits. This sapote fruit is quite rare here in Florida and is reportedly hardy down to 28F. It is cultivated in both Mexico and El Salvador. It is known as MEÑEGOWE in the Wao tededo language of the WAORANI. He obtained it eight years ago from my buddy the great fruit hunter CRAFTON CLIFT who brought it to this country. I’ll find out more about this fruit and report back later when I chat with Jimmy at his orchard. I want to obtain seeds. I see that Murray Corman, of Garden of Delights in Davie, sells small seedlings on his website for $35. Jimmy kindly asked me to visit his place and I will for sure. He knew some of my old rare fruit buddies from when I lived in Miami over twenty years ago including BILL WHITMAN the famous fruit hunter who lived in Bal Harbor, Florida. Jimmy and his wife Sally grow U-PICK GRAPES plus persimmons, avocados, lychees, longans, citrus and other fruits.
PHOTO: Green Deane speaking about wild edibles to the Manatee Rare Fruit Council.