It started for me about five years ago. At that point I was already a pescatarian, and was looking into growing my own food ( fresh produce is also obscenely overpriced in Australia and this no doubt factored into the deal). I realized I had 3 acres of land which wasn't doing anything other than looking pretty, and started to investigate my aspect, climate, and what could feasibly grown in my locale. I had also started looking into the ecology of meat and food production, and has horrified by what I found, and wanted to find a way off the merry-go-round of suffering, cruelty and environmental degradation caused by these industries.
I began ripping out the exotic ornamentals on my property and generally beating back the jungle which could neither feed me, nor native animals--and I have followed this rule until this day. If it doesn't do either of those things, it gets no space in my patch. I would estimate that I have personally removed and relocated over 100 cubic meters with nothing but a pick and shovel over that time. It's given me a kind of musculature that I doubt I could have achieved with traditional workouts, and has kept me fit generally. I also think it is good to do physically demanding work--for both body and mind. Also, I think I was tired of doing nothing other than working with words. I wanted to create and be involved in something practical.
In the beginning, I had very little understanding of even the basics--things like soil structure, PH, drainage, nutrients etc. Generally what I would do would be to dig a big ass hole, and fill it with potting mix. I lost a lot of good (and some quite expensive) trees through ignorance. As time has gone on, I've learned how to plant in clay, what mulch to use for different species, and most importantly, how much of the brutal Australian sun these different species can handle.
Anyway, I've always been quite good at researching things, and I put this skill to task. I spent probably a year just researching fruit species, and participating in enthusiast forums trying to benefit from the experience of other Australian growers. Gradually over time, I managed to narrow down the selection to trees that met the criteria of high survivability, quality, and production. Hundreds of different species have passed through my possession over time, and very few things make the cut. I will not grow something based on its rarity; it has to be good.
Probably the most significant part of the process was beginning to trade. This has afforded me some truly fantastic fruits. In the beginning, I was clueless when it came to quarantine, labeling, and proper packing. However the main issue I has was that I simply didn't have anything good to trade with international growers. The person who really helped me overcome that barrier was Mike T, who I'd met two years in or so. He saw me struggling with sourcing species and varieties of things growers in the US and Asia wanted, took pity on me and basically just gave me a bunch of things to get me started without asking anything in return, and knowing that I wouldn't be able to to pay him back. That's an important distinction to make.
As things developed, and I started successfully getting more packages from overseas and accruing more knowledge about cultivars, it began to occur to me how bereft of many good species and varieties Australia truly was, so my endeavors turned to towards improving the standard of what is available in my country. And so a lot of the time I put in now is directed towards this; I try and import large numbers of seeds, and disperse them around. Sometimes it bites me on the arse--people just grow them out, and hold on to them forever without sending propagation material to others when requested. They're the sort of people who want exclusivity...who will not share anything purely because they want to have something nobody else has. I do my best to systemically exclude them from my dealings as much as possible.
As time went on, I started developing a niche interest in dragonfruit. It took me about a year, but I ultimately managed to source all the good American and Mexican reds and purples. Then, (and this is where I'm currently at) I started moving into opuntia and other fruiting cacti.
In the future, I am considering starting a small dragonfruit farm of a few hundred plants, and plan to make confectionery etc out of these fruits as well as those of prickly pears etc. Perhaps I will also sell Abius and sapotes in limited quantities to markets.
Topic: Why and when did you start collecting rare fruit. (Read 12925 times)