United States Department of Agriculture

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Fruit DiversityOpportunities for Niche
Agriculture and a Treasure Trove for Chefs Ed
Stovered.stover_at_ars.usda.gov
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Why is a horticulturist talking to a bunch of
chefs?

• I guess the short answer is that Ken Love asked
  me to do so
• OK, OK, I admit it. I am only in my business
  because I am a slave to my taste buds
• Every meal is an opportunity not to be wasted and
  ideally an adventure!
• It has been my good fortune to explore widely and
  wildly in the world of fruit
• and I will try to share a perspective which MAY
  be useful

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How will I interpret my charge?

• I think we all agree that use of distinctive,
  even unique ingredients can help create a
  memorable dining experience
• Focusing on creating mindful dining
• Encourage use of niche products, mainly suitable
  for local production
• Suggest that a good story can provide added value
  to a menu item

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Focus

• Most of my talk will center on varieties in the
  US plant germplasm system
• You are fortunate to have a major repository here
  on the Big Island, and I know Francis Zee has
  been an advocate for their collections
• As curator of the Davis, CA repository, I became
  intimately familiar with many of the distinctive
  fruits within that collection
• I am now with the USDA citrus breeding program
  and hope to share some of the potential citrus
  treasures as well

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Davis NCGR is 1 of 33 Sites in National Plant
Germplasm System One of 9 Clonal
Repositories in US
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What is the significance of being a Clonal
Repository? -Maintaining unique combinations of
genes NOT just the genes themselves
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• Missions
• Acquire
• Maintain
• Characterize
• and Distribute
• Plant Genetic Diversity

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• Davis Collections- Noahs ark of conserved
  diversity
• 2926 Grapes and Relatives (54 sp.)
• 1415 Stone Fruits (84 species)
• 505 Walnuts and Relatives (21 sp.)
• 298 Figs (4 species)
• 231 Pistachios (13 species)
• 173 Pomegranates (1 species)
• 139 Olives (2 species)
• 137 Persimmons (4 species)
• 69 Kiwis (8 species)
• 59 Mulberries and Relatives (7 sp.)
• 36 Loquats (1 species)

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• WHY do we keep all this stuff?
• Maintained as a resource for plant breeders and
  other researchers
• Component of food security and sustainability
  efforts of USDA/ARS
• Also available for direct commercial use

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• THIS tour.
• Necessarily, I can only provide a brief tour of
  options
• These are varieties that compel my attention
• Some likely arent suited to Hawaii
• There is NO substitute for your eyes and
  tastebuds exploring the countless options!!

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Koshu
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This is a golden age for grapes!

• Breeders combining European and North American
  grapes as parents
• Developing grapes with unique flavors, colors and
  shapes
• I suggest you find Thomcord, a cross between
  Thompson and Concord
• Keep your eyes open! Many more coming.

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Photo courtesy of Ken Love
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Fig Tastings at the Repository
Photo courtesy of Ken Love
CRFG and CIA among others
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Fresh Fig Flavors

• Seems to me there are three dimensions to fig
  flavor
• Fruity component
• Range from mild watermelon or strawberry
• To bright raspberry flavors with considerable
  balancing acidity
• Caramel- molasses from mild caramel notes to
  rich molasses
• Herbaceous flavors- I suspect these are mainly
  associated with under-ripe fruit picked while
  latex is still flowing

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Photo courtesy of Ken Love
Grilled figs stuffed with chevre, wrapped and
prosciuto and speared with rosemary
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Kadota Dottato
Brown Turkey
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Hative d Argenteuil
Violette de Bordeaux
Panachee
Col de Dame
Verte
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DPRU2175 Sanguine Tardeva
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DPRU2123 Elephants Heart
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DPRU 1255 Pearl
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Prunus simonii- the Chinese apricot plum
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Black Persian Mulberry
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DMOR 15 Pakistan
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200 Pomegranate accessions at the NCGR- 50 from
Turkmenistan
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Pomegranate tasting at the repository
Considerable diversity in flavor Sweet
only Sweet tart VERY tart Mildly
fruity Cranberry like Cherry slurpee!!
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Some pomegranate seeds are quite soft and easily
eaten
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New Pomegranate accessions from Armenia and
Georgia
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Citrus Cultivars

• Astonishing variety of flavors, appearance, and
  maturity

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Types of Citrus

• Citrus grandis - (the pummelos or shaddocks)
• Native to southeast Asia where it is widely used
• similar to grapefruit, but much larger (some to
  10 diameter), less juicy than GF
• white and red-fleshed cultivars
• dessert or salad uses

Hirado Buntan is FLs outstanding selection
Pink fleshed, mild but zippy. Chandler main CA
selection
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Types of Citrus

• Citrus medica (the citrons)
• First citrus known in Europe
• fingered citron, Buddhas Hand Citron
• Etrog used in Sukkot (Jewish holiday)
• fruit primarily used for its peel- candied fruit
  in fruit cake- makes great marmalade

http//www.terredisrael.com/Images/Images/Judaisme
/etrog.jpg
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Types of Citrus

• Citrus aurantium - (the sour orange), likely
  originated as pummelo x mandarin
• excellent rootstock where no CTV- but highly
  susceptible
• varieties
• Bittersweet
• Paraguay
• Bergamot
• daidai
• Chinnoto

Used for perfume, flavoring (Earl Grey tea), and
culinary uses (amazing salsa)
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• Blood oranges
• Only get good color (anthocyanins) with cool
  winter weather

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Smith Red Valencia found when a home owner
complained to an extension agentrepeatedly, that
their neighbor was injecting blood into their
fruit!!
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Trial of Satsuma selections in Ventura County,
Calif.- from around the world
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Some have distinctive flavors this Chinese
satsuma, Xie Shan, has an apricot note
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Seedless Kishu
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Restaurants routinely showcase wine and now
cheese without further embellishment. Is there a
place on menus for exquisitely handled fruit?
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Germplasm Distribution from NPGS

• Free international genetic resources conserved
  for ALL of humanity
• gtplant breeders have been primary clients
• Ken Love has acquired a bunch of interesting
  stuff from the germplasm system-exploring their
  value in Hawaii
• Arrange a visit and see for yourself the amazing
  diversity available
• gtEager to encourage use of NCGR diversity