North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Kieran and/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>]

>  Unlike many americans...  we NAFEXers... are really interested in the cultivation of some of these fruits and I dont think these (ethnic) communities will just find us and join us. How do we make ourselves known??  

 

Oooh, that sounds like fun!  There is a Thai woman at the farmer's mkt who wants to swap me for Asian pear trees, and I gave my surplus bitter melon plants to the clerk at our new Asian grocery.  Maybe if I grafted a few extra pear trees and put my name and phone number on them and asked the Asian grocery to sell them on commission I could get some contacts.  Or I wonder if the Asian groceries in Nashville would carry a little poster for Nafex... it would be especially good if someone would translate it too.  Hmmm... it will give me something to think about in the heat as I check on my weird unamerican fruit varieties this weekend.  I am lucky enough to work next door to an Indian restaurant, they don't garden but I did give them pears last summer, which their kid loved.  (I gave some to their Mexican employee too.  I have wondered if a Mexican would think that an Indian restaurant would be a good place to work, with food that was much closer to normal for them than most food they can get here.)   Anyway, most immigrants are more interested in fresh produce and cooking from scratch than the average American.    Donna

 

P.S.  Y'know, when the price of gas went through the roof, I thought now Americans will come to their senses and start thinking about gardens and home cooking again, but that little hiccup seems to have passed.  I thought with a movie like Food Inc out that there'd be more business at the farmer's mkt (I hear biz has been slow this year so far).  I thought that with the Devil in the Milk book being published a year ago that we'd soon have some independent dairies selling A2 milk.  I have tried to whip a couple of local dairies into action.  Instead I know of 2 small independent dairies that are selling the same old product - pasteurized Holstein milk (ie A1 milk that will give me headaches, bellyaches, and turn me into a grouch).  I pestered the little bitty organic produce store to carry IPM fruit, they sneered at me, they are too pure for that. 

    But after hearing the head pharmacist at our local hospital give a talk on what fruits and veggies actually absorb pesticides, Kroger produce will make an even smaller part of our diet.  I had already sworn never to buy peaches there again.  To think that someone who's job it is to see that peaches are properly stored is doing it wrong, year after year....  and don't even get me started on all the groceries in America displaying potatoes under bright lights!