Santa Barbara Chocolatier Grows California’s First Known Cacao Farm
The report mentions that UC Davis has been doing cacao research, including growing in greenhouses in Davis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgvwH7m197A #FruitToot #Chocolate #California #Horticulture
Paonia, Delta County fruit farmers lose years-worth of peaches in wild weather swings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES3ouzjYqdo #Colorado #Horticulture #FruitToot
It's interesting to see the different cultivars and different harvesting habits with fruit in other cultures.
The small green globes here are plums, but harvested early so they're very slightly sour and have a bit more of a "vegetable" quality to them.
Some cultures harvest almonds early, when the seed is not fully formed and they taste almost like green beans.
Our lemon tree produced this little oddity. I see an elephant trunk, and feel the sudden urge to add a couple googly eyes. 🍋🐘👀
Managed to find a local apple cultivar at the Münstermarkt in Freiburg today!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glockenapfel #FruitToot #Apple
No pics, but I found a 'Belle de Boskoop' apple at the store and am happy. I'd be happier with 'Newtown Pippin', but I'm grateful to find an actual apple on the tart side!
Sadly, apple-growing (and a lot of other fruit-growing) has been homogenized. Even if it's grown locally to you, it is likely a fruit bred elsewhere. This isn't always a bad thing, but it is bad when good local varieties become almost impossible to find.
So you can find 'Gala', 'Fuji', 'Cripps Pink' aka "Pink Lady™" apples and 'Conference' pears at most greengrocers I've been to in my EU trip so far, but it's harder to find local cultivars.
Here they have a couple less common ones.
I was born too late for there to be wooden punnets or trays for strawberries, I think, but there were still wooden crates for many fruits & vegetables when I was born.
I have a soft spot for them. While deforestation is not cool, sustainable harvesting and reuse seems a LOT better than plastic punnets and trays to me.
Elise Tomaszewski: ... An investigation of Physalis grisea fruit abscission
Cornell Graduate Field of Plant Breeding
Plant Breeding & Genetics seminar series
April 7, 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU7ztt2HEp8 #Botany #Horticulture #PlantBreeding #FruitToot
The 'Reinette Grise' has a nice sweet/acid balance. It reminds me of 'Gravenstein' a little, and has a similar flesh texture.
While it can be eaten fresh as I just did, I suspect it would be better as apple sauce and apple butter, or in a mix with firmer-fleshed apples. #FruitToot
Megan Lynch (she/her)
K3V!N