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Martin Koning-Bastiaan, President Martin has been a member of CRFG since 2003, after attending his first Festival of Fruit in Riverside. The generosity, kindness, and the welcoming nature of the other members has stuck with him as the hallmark of what the CRFG stands for. He has tried to emulate that generosity of spirit he found at that Festival and at the ensuing chapter meetings. One of his CRFG heroes was Glenn Young, who was so very kind and generous with his knowledge and advice. Growing fruiting plants is one way he stays grounded, as his day job keeps him at a computer most of the day. He has been an enthusiastic planter of all sorts of fruit. If you ask him what his favorite fruit is he will sound like a second grader listing off their favorite flavors of ice cream (be ready for a long list!). He has taught grafting classes for well over a decade. As for his other hobby, he loves to cook, especially to bake bread and pizza. He has been president of the CRFG since 2021. He has been on the CRFG board since 2018. Prior to that he was a longtime chapter chair of the Foothill Chapter. |
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| <<Image Forthcoming>> | David Payton, Treasurer | |
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Karen Payton, Recording Secretary Hello! I’m Karen Payton, member of CRFG, Inc. since my husband, David, and I went to a Los Angeles Chapter CRFG meeting in mid 1996 and decided “these are our people.” It was the first group I ever voluntarily joined. At the time, we lived in Woodland Hills in a home built on magic soil. In 1985 we planted our first fruit tree—a fig—then, soon, a Satsuma plum, a cherimoya, and an Asian pear. Then, shortly, we planted every rare fruiting plant we heard of. Everything we planted (but the sapodilla) grew and fruited without our having to learn anything about being skilled gardeners. We enjoyed the magic of growing a cornucopia of sumptuous rare and common fruits. Wanting more room for plants, we moved about twenty years ago to a nearby home with more land and—without our knowing it—terrible dirt. But we’re still growing what we can. We became active in CRFG at the chapter level a couple of years after we joined, and on the CRFG, Inc. level about 14 years ago, in both instances, mainly, at the invitation of Kathy and Bob Vieth. We are deeply grateful to them for encouraging us to get involved in an organization that has played a major role in our lives for almost three decades. As I’ve said before, our efforts to support CRFG is with the objective that it will stay strong so we can keep enjoying it as we have so far. It is a wonderful source of friends, fun, knowledge, plant materials, good eating, celebrations, chances to benefit other people, and other uplifting experiences. Born in San Diego, I’ve lived almost my whole life in the Greater Los Angeles Area, mainly in the San Fernando Valley. Through the years I’ve had a few areas of study and employment, and have worked for the last many years as a psychotherapist. If you are reading this, I’ll presume you are a CRFGer. I wish for you the range of tangible and intangible benefits that David and I have gotten for all these years. And if someone encourages you to “get more involved,” hope you’ll consider it! You don’t even have to be a good gardener. We aren’t! |
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| Directors and Services | ||
| <<Image Forthcoming>> | Bill Grimes, Administrator | |
| <<Image Forthcoming>> | Ron Couch, Fruit Gardener Editor | |
| <<Image Forthcoming>> | José Gallego, Calendar Manager José is a passionate rare fruit enthusiast who started his journey in 1973 when he moved from Tijuana to Guadalajara to study Chemistry. He discovered a variety of exotic fruits there and despite skepticism about growing these fruits in Tijuana, he remained interested. In 1993, José bought a house in San Diego with a terraced backyard. His interest in rare fruits deepened when he discovered a community dedicated to cultivating rare fruits at the San Diego CRFG Chapters’ booth during the Del Mar Fair in 1994. This led him to attend meetings and connect with CRFG founders and experts. José’s involvement with the CRFG grew over the years. He volunteered for leadership roles, organized the first Festival of Fruit in San Diego in 1998, and served as Chapter Chairman from 1998 to 2001, and again from 2007 to 2009. Since 2012, he has been the Column Manager for Chapter Events in the Fruit Gardener. José has over 100 fruit trees, with a special fondness for pomegranates and Washington Navel oranges. Even during his 27-year tenure as a Laboratory Supervisor for the City of San Diego, José pursued hobbies like plant tissue culture, building lasers, and coin collecting. His retirement has allowed him to further indulge in these interests. |
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| <<Image Forthcoming>> | Marta Matvienko, Fruit Tree Registration Manager Marta Matvienko is a professional in the field, holding a PhD in Genetics and Microbiology. She leads the Frinj Coffee R&D which involves the coffee genome research, horticultural practices and pest protection. A member of the Sacramento chapter, Marta also experiments in her home garden in Davis and now is establishing a 4 acres fruit diversity orchard in Woodland. She grows hundreds of trees and makes hundreds of grafts each year. She tests the performance of tender subtropicals alongside varieties well adapted to the Sacramento Valley. Her horticultural notes can be found on her blog at https://fruitsandgardening.blogspot.com/ Marta has also resurrected the CRFG Fruit Cultivar Registration program. Any CRFG member in good standing may apply for the registration of a new or improved cultivar of fruit or plant. The new cultivar may be a seedling, a sport or a mutant bud which has characteristics distinct from the parent plant(s). No already-named cultivars should be submitted. Older trees should be examined closely for graft unions that have lost their definition. There must be a least one superior characteristic, such as improved fruit quality, regularity of bearing, hardiness, minimum chilling requirement, or vigor. To request an application form contact Marta at |
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| <<Image Forthcoming>> | Margaret Frane, Past President | |
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Doug Jones, Director Doug Jones is an Arizona native who grew up helping his dad in the garden and around their fruit trees. He spent two years on a church mission in Thailand where he fell in love with all the locally grown tropical fruits fresh in the Thai markets. When he returned home he was surprised at the small selection of fruits available in the supermarket at that time, about 1980, and was disappointed in how bland the fruit tasted. Finding the bananas and mangoes especially awful, he decided to grow his own. After several unsuccessful attempts at growing them on his own, he came across the California Rare Fruit Growers in the back of a magazine. He found out there was a handful of possible members in the Phoenix area and joined them in organizing a local chapter of CRFG, where he served as the first president. The new chapter started out with ten or so members meeting at an extension service. They now meet at Mesa Community College and often have over a hundred people attending their meetings, all excited about growing rare tropical fruit trees. Doug joined the Board of Directors in 2017. |
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| <<Image Forthcoming>> | Elke Kuhl, Director Elke Kuhl has been on the board since 2019. Her statement: I am grateful to be a member of the Orange County Chapter of the CRFG. One of the pleasures in life is to find such wonderful friends in such an amazing organization! My name is Elke Kuhl and my family and I found out about this club back in the early 1990s at the Orange County Fair when we stopped by the booth to find out what Rare Fruit was! My Dad was enthralled and signed us up on the spot! Over the years, as the garden was slowly planted with one fruit tree after another, they number over 50 now, and as our knowledge grew after each meeting, we were able to be more and more successful. We have all enjoyed the fruits of our labors throughout the year, and so do our neighbors! How lucky we are to be able to grow our own fruits and vegetables. They taste so good!Over the years we have held many different positions including hosting the hospitality table, helping set up and clean up the booth at the Orange County Fair, helping with the booth at the Fullerton Arboretum Green Scene, being on the newsletter committee, and the Great Scion Wood Exchange. Personally, I have held several positions on the Board of Directors of the Orange County Chapter. They include Secretary, OC Fair co-chair, Imaginology chair, hosted a booth at the Santa Ana Zoo, newsletter editor since 2014, CRFG Inc. liaison, and two time Chapter chairperson. I am active with all our events and would very much like to visit every chapter as soon as we are all comfortable with meeting in person again after these recent years! I am thrilled to be able to contribute and give back all I can to teach new members the tidbits and nuggets which make gardening successful, delicious and fun! |
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| <<Image Forthcoming>> | Michael Kusiak, Director | |
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Ben Pierce, Director Ben Pierce has been growing all types of fruits and vegetables since he was a child. He is a 5th generation Californian and has a keen interest in California agricultural history especially the state’s fruit growing history. Ben was all set to go to Cal Poly Pomona as an ag major but decided at the last minute to stay closer to home in Norwalk. He bought a home computer early on and started writing programs which eventually led to a career in software development.Currently Ben farms his 1/2 acre lot in suburban San Marcos. Besides gardening and beekeeping, he enjoys making wine and sourdough bread. Ben is an advocate of sustainable and organic growing methods. He has been a member of CRFG since 1991 has served on the CRFG Board of Directors as Vice President, Chair of the CRFG Technical Committee and board member. He was the Chair of the North San Diego County Chapter of CRFG for 6 years. He also has served as the Vice-Chair, Newsletter Editor, and Webmaster for the chapter. |
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| <<Image Forthcoming>> | Ruth Ann Showalter, Director | |
| <<Image Forthcoming>> | Ryan Raes, Director I was born in Roseville, California, and raised mostly in Napa, California. I went to College at Sonoma State University. My passion for rare fruit started during childhood and early adult travels to such places as Hawaii and Florida. In 2005 I joined a band from Brazil which exposed me to even more rare fruits. Around 2011 I found the CRFG local chapter and was blown away. Fairly life-changing one could say. I have become more involved over the years, and even bought a large property to be able to grow hundreds more fruit trees! I am currently on the CRFG Board and am seeking reelection. At this time I am also a Board Member of the North American Fruit Explorers, and am an active member of the Napa Land Trust, California Native Plant Society, and the Lost Apple Project. I was also chapter chair of the Redwood Empire CRFG chapter for two years prior to the Board and a featured article writer for our Fruit Gardener Magazine. |
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John Valenzuela, Director John Valenzuela is a horticulturist, consultant and educator who has returned to live in Northern California after being based in Hawai’i for 15 years. First introduced to the sustainable design theories and methods of permaculture in 1989, John studied and practiced tropical permaculture and taught extensively in the Hawaiian Islands. He has been a lead permaculture design course instructor at the Bullock Family Homestead in Orcas Island, Washington for over 15 years, and also has experience teaching in Costa Rica and now throughout urban and rural California, collaborating with leading permaculture organizations (see the Collaborative Community page on this site). His special interests are rare fruit, home gardening, trees, traditional agriculture, plant propagation, and ethnobotany. He is active in the Golden Gate chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers where he has been Annual Scion Exchange coordinator, and served as Chapter Chairperson. John is a regular volunteer at the Indian Valley Organic Farm and Garden, College of Marin in Novato, where he works and advises in the orchard and coordinates fruit tree propagation in the nursery. He now lives and grows in North Eastern Marin County California, where he is diversifying a food forest garden with over 150 varieties of fruit on multi-grafted trees, along with a small nursery, while practicing photography, developing educational materials, freelance consulting, team teaching, planting and maintaining gardens. He specializes in the care of fruit trees, especially pruning and grafting. John is known for an engaging enthusiasm that matches his depth of plant knowledge. |
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