Quote from: Tomas on February 02, 2012, 09:27:39 PM

Hello everyone,

I have been pondering lately if I am growing the right kinds of plants (about 50 different species). If I take away all the personal satisfaction of actually growing a rare fruit plant, when it comes time to eat the fruit and especially sharing fruits with "normal" people who are not fanatic or devoted like me to tropical fruits I have many times been a little disappointed that others don't appreciate the fruits as I do. Is this all because I have become attached to my plants too much
and that subconsciously it makes me believe that the fruit tastes great? So I have been thinking that maybe there is more to it than just happily growing rare fruits. Perhaps what I want ideally is to actually impress people with my fruits to make them want to grow them too. So far that hasn't happened, with one
exception and that is jaboticaba (that jaboticaba jam is heaven! - and someone here knows exactly what I am talking about).  I am glad I have a few different varieties of jaboticaba growing. Also I have high hopes that my Achachairu and the Mexican Garcinia will be a great fruit for "common people".

Anyone with ideas/comments?

Tomas
 
 

No offense please, but "normal" Americans are by far the sorriest lot when it comes to appreciating fruits. Ofcourse most of you are exceptions (so abnormal?)  . Most Americans prefer a candy bar or a hostess twinkie or a donut. They're just not that much into fruits. So my recomendation is to somehow get over the wish of trying to impress others. Just relish the fact that you like the fruits you grow and enjoy them without needing to please others.
Oscar

This. I really can't understand why anyone would prefer sweets to fruit. I mean, I like sweets too, but set cake next to fruit and I'll definitely eat the fruit first.

I don't think it's just Americans though; I'm on a UK forum where lots of people only like a few fruits.

I haven't been able to try many fruits and all the ones I have had I've loved. I hate elderberries though, I guess there's a reason why they aren't recommended for fresh eating  They were totally flavorless. Bleh! I have elderberries growing in my yard and they look so enticing, but never again will I try them!

I've been thinking the same thing, you don't often hear of marang growers. I would love to have marang but I couldn't unless it can be kept pruned short like jackfruit can, since it is very tropical. It would have to be protected in the winter.

Hmm, doesn't seemed to have changed much since 1990.

Quote from: Gryffindor4 on January 26, 2012, 12:32:38 AM

Aw, I'm still in 9a.

 I heard that many years ago it used to be a lot warmer here and they used to grow a lot of citrus commercially. Anyone know what zone Jacksonville was like 20-30 years ago?

Was it 20-30 years ago that they used to grow it? I remember reading in a book about the History of Citrus that a while back (I think even more than 100 years ago) there were many citrus groves further north in the state because there hadn't been a strong freeze in a few years. After many people planted out acres of citrus and the trees were doing well, a really strong freeze happened and killed off all the groves that were too far north. The groves were not replanted in fear of losing everything again. Since I do not have the book, what I said is just from memory and could be completely wrong. I will try google and see if I can find more concrete info about it.

Yeah, I think it was about 30 years ago. My parents moved to Florida in the early 80's and my mom said that north Florida was warmer then and grew citrus commercially.

And Florida has changed with rainfall as well, I remember when I was little, like in the 90's, that it used to rain nearly every afternoon in the summer. I remember hating that because we'd have to plan swimming in the pool and going to the beach around the rain. Now it doesn't rain near enough, my retention pond has been low for 2 years now.

I'm glad there's some Floridians growing cherries. I asked once on another forum whether low chill cherries would do well in Florida and  there's some debate as to how successful they are because of the humidity. I hope they fruit this year!