08/13/07 Sampling the Fruit

Sampling the Fruit. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Each year Essie Fallahi, University of Idaho fruit crop physiologist looks forward to having a few people over. He doesn't serve up the usual fare though but he does have some delectable fruit and people come from several states just for a sample. FALLAHI: September 6 we are going to have our annual fruit field day when we are going to show several varieties of table grapes, peaches, nectarines, pluots, apples and alternative fruits here. Fallahi has been doing the fruit field day for quite a few years and they always begin with some demonstrations, lectures, a sampling then a visit to the fields. I was intrigued though by the term, alternative fruits. FALLAHI: What I mean by that is first of all we have different types of fruits such as Asian pears and persimmons. But the word alternative fruit is also used for different types of apples, different types of peaches and nectarines. These are the fruits we have been growing in Washington, Idaho for many, many years but the varieties we are trying are different. Hmmm. I wonder how many different types we are talking about. FALLAHI: Let me give you an example. We are experimenting with 11 different strains of Gala apples and 9 different strains of Fuji. If you are interested in attending the fruit field day, Fallahi suggests you call or email so they have an idea of how many will be attending. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.