The January and February Scion Exchanges and Grafting Demos, the keystone and highlight of the CRFG year, are once again being impacted by the resurgence of COVID-19 infections. Most chapters are restricting their exchanges — if they are holding them at all — to chapter members only. If you are interested in attending such an event, you will be best served by checking in with the chapters closest to you for details. Find them under Chapters.
Yang Mei anyone?
The intrepid folks at the Tropical Fruit Forum have just launched another group buy of the elusive Myrica Rubra trees from China. Talk about rare fruit! You can read all the details here.
NAFEX 2021 virtual conference
CRFG was supposed to hold a joint conference with NAFEX in Santa Rosa in 2020 but you know what happened there. It was optimistically rescheduled for this year but again fate intervened. Now NAFEX, with some help from the Redwood Empire Chapter, has decided to hold an online conference in November. Read all the details here.
2021 Fruit Shoot Winners…
…can now be viewed in our Piwigo gallery. In the meantime enjoy this first-place winning portrait of Borage — An Edible Magnet for Pollinators — by Linda Kay Williams of San Diego.
Urgent PSA: For all California Fig Growers
The first alarm was sounded on the ourfigs.com forum three weeks ago. Now the larvae of the Black Fig Fruit Fly (Silba adipata McAlpine) has been found from Santa Barbara south to at least Orange County. The photo above is from Santa Monica. If your unripe figs appear misshapen or prematurely dark or soft, please cut them open and check for larvae. You can contact the state and they will send out inspectors who will take samples. Their “bug docs” are currently trying to figure out a lure. This is what they sent out recently.
pestalert_blackfigflyThe folks at ourfigs.com are also worth joining as they independently track the infestation and hunt down solutions. The fly has been endemic in other parts of the world so there is some research available.
CRFG is for You!
This great song was written by LA Chapter’s Emory Walton and performed by Michael Falcone.
(Photo by Rod Long on unSplash)
If you — like the rest of the world — are buying more from Amazon these days…
…why not sign in to smile.amazon.com with your regular Amazon credentials and choose California Rare Fruit Growers as your designated charity? It doesn’t cost you a cent more and helps us give you more of what you joined us for (well, except for fruit exchanges and face to face meetings in this Time of the Virus).
If you use the Amazon Shopping app on your phone, you can enable Smile in Settings. Just tap “AmazonSmile” and follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.
And thanks from CRFG!
OC Chapter is now meeting online
And all CRFG members are welcome.
Check out www.ocfruit.com for dates, times and other details.
To attend (via Zoom), please RSVP with your name and chapter to: [email protected]
The 2019 Festival of Fruit is now over
Hats off to the formidable Foothill Chapter for a truly wonderful event. If you have photos of the event you would like us to post on the site, please send them on.
