North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Moyer, Richard" <ramoyer@king.edu>]

Have been thinking of Andrew's quest for Korean fruit info, and formulating
some general principles developed while living briefly in Korea, Norway, and
Puerto Rico. This is lengthy, for is also written for Pomona.  Comments
welcome on the viability of these as general fruit exploring principles home
or abroad. 

1) Fruit exploration can (should?) be more than a mere piece of food,
instead asking where fruit fits into shared human experience as sustenance,
beauty and pleasure.
2) Decide to honor local culture through wanting to know some of their
fruits over their collective history.  Why do Koreans eat jujube (Zizyphus)
at Chosuk (harvest) festival, and also in samgyetang soup during Pok--the
hottest days of the year?  In what contexts can I encounter pine nut, pollen
and needle dishes?  Why are persimmons used to dye cotton cloth?  
3) Write out your quest (briefly) for regionally adapted fruit, then have
someone translate this into Korean and make cards for handing out.  Visit
the various folk-life museums, festivals and university folk-life
departments; pass out your written requests, with contact info. 
4) Attend local and national folk festivals (KNTO-Korean National Tourist
Organization will give dates and locations).  Observe, then ask about fruit
images in traditional artwork.  Eat (buy) the food, ask about the names of
fruits and ask the cook or vendor to write them down for you.  You can get
translation later, but often Korean students or professionals are bilingual
and can help translate your cultural quest.
5) Ask for cookbooks for sale with local fruit recipes.  Use KNTO printed
materials for info on traditional Korean recipes.  The pictures will give
you fruits to refer to when requesting help in looking for plants.    Order
these traditional recipes at local restaurants, again asking for fruit names
in writing.  Be leery of 'western' restaurants, in terms of price and
authenticity.  
6) Learn to write the names of Korean fruits in Korean, or have someone
write these for you.  Carry the fruit with you or buy when traveling; then
show it to people. Learn to say "kam namu" (persimmon tree), "taechu namu"
(jujube tree), etc.
7) Visit local fruit markets throughout the year, and develop relationships
with regulars.  If you find particularly good tasting fruit, save seed, or
offer money for a plant or cutting at a future date.  My fruit/vegetable
vendor was a business woman who sensed our adventurous spirit and would
regularly show us small amounts of unusual items she brought to market, even
throwing in weird looking things with our purchase to get us to try new
things.  Most items are dirt cheap and what's a few thousand won for new
fruit/vegetable experiences?  I ordered by writing down or drawing a picture
of what fruit I wanted. Also wrote in Arabic numerals how many kg, and date
and time when we'd meet again.  She filled my requests for unusual items,
usually without a hitch.
8) Participate in wild harvests.  Koreans cherish 'san namul' or mountain
greens for health.  Spend time hiking, stop and observe what greens and
fruits they are harvesting, and learn words for soup, stew, etc for how to
cook.  Ansan mountain in Seoul has many acres of edible reforestation. Find
these and other wild harvest sites, then compare germplasm alongside the
locals. 
9) Locate fruit researchers.
http://www.newcrops.uq.edu.au/listing/listingindex.htm New Crops
bibliographies list numerous articles, including some by Korean
fruit/forestry researchers. Good start for names and locations. Search
engines such as Google can identify specific fruit research in many
countries, e.g. "persimmon Korea".  Certain research stations are devoted to
fruit germplasm preservation and improvement.  Submit requests in writing to
arrange visits, tours, or to meet with experts.  Bring along a translator or
hire one at the station if needed.  Remember that even if you can't
communicate through speech, certain of their research publications may be in
English, at least the abstracts.
10) A humble and gracious attitude opens many doors; these can be closed by
disdain. Don't expect all farms or horticultural practices to conform to our
ideals.  
[Previous post: "i have wondered around just looking at farms but due to a
language barrier and the generally abhorrent methods of agriculture i have
come across it is hard to find out what i may be looking at or be too
interested. but i am quite sure there is something interesting or maybe even
amazing to be found here."]
Consider that robust germplasm may be on display amidst the "abhorrent
methods" one may encounter. 
11) Joe Hecksel wrote of geographic islands which may contain heightened
diversity.  Botanists at universities/botanical gardens can help identify
these. While traveling in Korea, we found that mountainous Sorak Park has
native kiwi, mountainous Naejangsan Park has old persimmon and quince trees,
and Cheju Island contains a diversity of tropical to temperate fruits. Rubus
and Prunus were scattered throughout.
12) Enjoy the journey.  A highlight of our Korea trip was the remote Andok
Valley in Chejudo, accessible by rural bus.  The rocky river gorge was
fronted by a shack with a yard full of various cold-hardy citrus.  Once in
the small gorge, we saw red petals floating in the water and looked up to
see native camellias overhanging the rocky rim.

Richard Moyer
East Tennessee
Eating jujubes to access these memories!
------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 08:19:06 -0800
From: "Mark Lee" 

Andrew,
I have little knowledge of farming in Korea, but this may help...

There is an on-line database called Plants for a Future.  In the Advanced
Search section, you can list edible plants native to Korea using the
following link
http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/find_use?RATING=3&ED_USE=SHOW&AREA=Asia%
28Korea%29&LAT=&COM=&CAN=ADVANCE
This search turned up 401 species that are rated average or better than
average in usefulness.  These include plants that can supply edible fruit,
leaves, roots, tea and condiments.

I visit the following site frequently and recommend it to anyone exploring
uncommon edibles:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/D_search.html

Behalf Of sam bucus
  Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 10:32 PM
  To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org; permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  Subject: [JunkMail] [NAFEX] fruit and stuff in korea


  hello,

  i have been in korea for a year and a half now and am trying to find any
books, websites or other resources of any kind on korean trees of any kind,
particularly fruit and nut trees or edible or medicinal plants. or just
pretty plants. or vegetables.

  i have wondered around just looking at farms but due to a language barrier
and the generally abhorent methods of agriculture i have come across it is
hard to find out what i may be looking at or be too interested. but i am
quite sure there is something interesting or maybe even amazing to be found
here.

  basically i am searching for a place that can give me a starting point to
find out what korea has to offer.  then i want to track down interesting
varieties, good producers, rare plants/cultivars, etc.  i am aware of such
korean anomalies as kimchi and stuff and am looking for a place to get info
on some of the rarer and lesser known korean plants although i think kimchi
tastes good and am very interested in fermentation.

  of equal interest to me are traditional methods of planting, cultivating,
preparing, preserving, etc. although that may be easier found through
observation here.

  my idea is to get some information from outside korea first as a starting
point bc so far everyone here laughs at me when i say i want to be a farmer
or farming is interesting ("don't you want to make money? aren't you from
america? do you work for novartis?") and then as i travel on weekends find
and document what i can in a plant press and identify as much as possible.
then maybe i can collect seeds or propogate (if the school allows a little
nursery on the roof) and send them to someone on here that has some
unplanted ground.

  just a fun project.  any information would be greatly appreciated.

  sincerely,

  andrew


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