John, how about an update on the office fruit tasting. What did everyone like and was there anything you all hated? If you ever find a really good quality Durian, be sure and call me. After recently reading the book "Fruit Hunters", I really want to try them.

john, if you don't have a dragon fruit, let me know via email (corar1020@aol.com)and I'll send you a baby for the cost of postage. cora

Ralph - some of the folks tasted the offerings. Nothing won anyone over. The bright orange loquats were the best - they tasted like a bland apricot (same texture without the classic apricot taste) with Orange Koolaid injected into it somehow. After cutting them up they lose the flavor pretty quickly and after a day or so in the fridge they have none of the orange tang.

The Longans were interesting but tasted more like clear gelatin with a bit of sweetness added in, with a hint of nuttyness as an aftertaste. Not as sweet or flavorful as a cherry. And they do look like dragon's eyeballs after you open them up.

The rambutans are just so odd looking you want them on your table to scare people with. They tasted almost exactly like the Longans except there was a hint of tropical-ness to them as an aftertaste.

I'm saving seeds of all of them to sprout. I'll share at the spring swap.

Corar - when you say "baby" do you mean a baby plant or the fruit??? I have tasted the fruit here. It was ok. I've heard they are tastier when eaten straight off the plant in the tropics. I would love a baby plant - especially if it is one you know tastes good. I grow some of their relatives and they love my hoophouse in the winter. I get plenty of blooms in the early summer. I had heard that growing them from seed can give you bland tasting fruit, that it is better to grow them from cuttings of plants you know have good flavor.

My email is johnbuettner@hotmail.com