Hello,
Is it possible that hardiness zones and
where the bulk of NAFEX members live, somewhat limits the fruits that can be
explored?
Has anyone ever produced a map that
demonstrates NAFEX member concentration distribution? It can
be done simply enough with just a list of the zip codes for each member. Any
company that has a sales department and a large customer base will have this
type of software. It is handy to know exactly where customer
concentrations occur.
Sure, some very exotic fruits can be
grown in North America, but if people do not
have greenhouses or winter storage opportunities it simply isn’t possible.
There are NAFEX special interest groups
that focus on some very niche fruits. These groups have their own forums,
but are not widely used, to my knowledge.
This email group is analogous to the
lobby of a university where common things are discussed more routinely, but
there are many smaller groups, with more focused discussions behind other
doors.
Fruit And Nut Interest Groups
http://www.nafex.org/interest_groups.htm
Special Consultants
http://www.nafex.org/consultants.htm
I am sure that if interest exists these
areas can be expanded for those with truly exotic fruit exploration.
Later,
Tom
From:
nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of rob hamilton
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2007 9:06
PM
To: North
American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Fwd: [rarefruit]
Discussion aims of the group
Dear membership,
This is an interest comment. I have only been with NAFEX for about 6 years.
Some some aspects or this post I agree and with and some I don't. I feel this
is an excellent opportunity for our membership (at least the on-line ones) to
chime in to let the board know what you want.
These are my thoughts...
There is a alot of discussions on mainstream fruits in the on-line forum and in
Pomona, though
the varieties discussed are often are historical or rare and sometimes
unorthodox uses of those fruits. That being said, I do see plenty of discussion
of rare or under explored fruits, and kiwi or hardy kiwi is hardly and exotic
fruit on our list. Ask Hector Black and Hall Love. I personally would
love to see more exploration of rarer fruit. I think (gut feeling here) members
do, but may not actively report on them.
I also think that we do have a diversity of people on the whole
chemical/organic spectrum. I am tired of seeing people place in just two
extremes in this issue, and I do feel here people discuss and practice various
methodologies and anyone would find a colleague in our membership that would
see their interest represented. I do see the organic community growing, and
that is an area I think we could find more members.
I do NOT want this post to sound like I took offense at these comments. It is
further from the truth. I thank Dr. Parmar posted this. My hope is that we can
use it as a vehicle to ask ourselves if this is the group we want.
I think each fruit group out there has there own "flavor" of community.
I am part of Southern Fruit Fellowship, and the California Rare fruit
group. There will always be overlap between them, though no group well satisfy
everyone, I think we are a good general entry point for all people interested
in temperate fruit.
Robert Hamilton
"Dr. Chiranjit
Parmar" <parmarch@gmail.com> wrote:
Here are some comments about NAFEXers from Rarefruit list.
I've given thought to the coolfruit/rarefruit group
issue and don't know what to do about it. Coolfruit is
to some extent displaced by the NAFEX list, although
unfortunately many of the folks on the NAFEX internet
list are very mainstream apple/peach/plum growers who
love chemical agriculture and think kiwi fruit are
exotic fruits. Many aren't really fruit explorers at
all which was the original purpose of NAFEX. The NAFEX
magazine is far more interesting than the NAFEX
internet group. The Dave's Garden groups also have
members that specialize in temperate fruit growing but
using the group is so clunky that I won't waste my
time.
I tend to think of rarefruit as a list for just that,
rare fruit, and the rarer the better. While there
really is nothing rare about mangos and jackfruit,
they are rare if you live in temperate areas. And
truly edible lonicera is rare almost everywhere
outside of northern Europe, Canada
and Japan.
I guess I just don't want to see rarefruit restricted
too much. If we say we can't discuss lonicera and cold
hardy kiwi here, it just seems that the group loses
something. There will always be people who are not
interested in certain topics whether the topic is a
tropical, subtropical or temperate fruit, and they are
under no obligation to follow those posts. Lord knows
I am usually bored stiff by rambutan, litchee and
langsat discussions. For me to try to grow them would
be way too much work and the payoff is just not worth
the effort. On the other hand red fleshed jackfruit,
purple yams and purple fleshed durian are very
interesting to me whether I can grow them or not. My
point is just that no one is ever interested in all
posts.
But if we broaden the scope of rare fruit, then what
happens to coolfruit? That would have been a good
question in 2001 but right now coolfruit has so few
posts that I don't think the question matters much
anymore.
--- CannonConsult <b.cannon01@verizon.net>
wrote:
> Hi Mike,
>
> What you write is true. The question is do we need
> to advertise the
> group more or include non warm climate edibles
> here? I tend to let the
> group make such decisions even though I would love
> to see the CoolFruit
> group become more active. It has over 280 members
> with 76 bouncing so
> that leaves about 200 that are still there to see
> posts.
>
> You have been in this group quite a while and in
> CoolFruit since 1981.
> Perhaps you would be willing to become a co-owner an
> promote the group
> and see if it can be woken up? At this moment I
> simply do not have the
> time to push it as much as I would like to.
>
> If you, or any other list members, wish to contact
> me off list about
> this feel free to do so at: cannonconsult@myway.com
>
> Best of growing,
>
> Bob
> SW Florida USA
>
> Michael Nave wrote:
>
> > The problem Bob is that nothing ever happens on
> > coolfruit these days. It peaked in about 2001 when
> > coincidentally Jan was a member and he I exchanged
> > emails about chestnuts and jujube and I believe I
> sent
> > him seeds from a Russian jujube cultivar I had at
> that
> > time. In 2001 coolfruit had about one message per
> day.
> > Last year it had about one message every 3 days
> and
> > this year it is down to about one message every
> six
> > days with about a third of those messages coming
> from
> > me and Phil Pieri.
> >
> > Mike
> >
> > .
>
>
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Best regards,
Very truly yours,
Dr. Chiranjit Parmar
186/3 Jail Road
Mandi HP 175001 INDIA
www.lesserknownindianplants.com
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