North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Henry <treehugger53ah@yahoo.com>]

There does not seem to be much information about this plant.

The internet suggests it is the same species as Russian olive. The fruit is 
much larger and sweet.

A friend from Turkey claims it was a favored fruit among the children when he 
was growing up. He brought me a bag of the fruit.

They look like dates with a light brown dry skin. I broke one open with my 
fingernail and found a dry almost white mealiness inside. It did not look 
appetizing. It was sweet but not at all like a date.

I tried manually cleaning the seed and it was way too difficult. But I could 
clean them well with my teeth. The taste grew on me and I found myself 
happily cleaning the rest of them.

Does anyone know if I can expect good quality fruit from seed?

Does anyone have experience growing it in North America?

--Henry Fieldseth
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, zone 4