Foothill SRFG meetings in L.A.

Dear Foothill CRFG members and friends,Our next meeting (Saturday, August 4 at 9:30 am at the L.A. Arboretum) will feature special guest speakerYvonne Savio of the Common Ground Garden Program, University of California Cooperative Extension, Los Angeles County.

Yahoo group for Monterey Bay Chapter

EMAIL DISCUSSION FORUM: We have created a Yahoo Groups discussion forum forMonterey Bay Chapter members of the CRFG. If you'd like to join the list, allyou have to do is send a blank e-mail to from the address you wantsubscribed to the list and follow the instructions you get back by returnmail. In the message you receive, you will be sent a link to a confirmationpage at groups.yahoo.com. If you do not have a yahoo e-mail address you canstill join the mailing list by clicking the link on the bottom of the pagewhere it says, "As an alternate option, you may join the mailing listinstead." If you have, or are willing to get, a free yahoo mail account, youhave options for selecting whether you want to receive each messageindividually, each day's worth of messages in one digest of the day's traffic,or not receive messages at all so you just read them from the yahoo groups website. You need not read your mail on your yahoo account -- you can read itfrom any account you choose. We hope you'll join in the free-flow of ideasfor upcoming chapter events or submit your rare fruit questions to your fellowmembers.

CRFG booth, calling rare fruits for gelato

Howdy folks,I'm working hard not only to try to get as much garden club/plant society participation in "Cross-Pollination" as I possibly can, but tomake sure that CRFG's booth is a big hit and that we'll draw in somenew members. Part of what will make our booth stand out, I think, ishaving some rare fruit gelato. Gelateria Naia is willing to make gelato out of fruit we barter. They keep most of it, but give us a share based on how much fruit we give them. Are you or other CRFGers you know of willing to donate some fruit from your yards towards the making of some gelato to be stored until the 9/23/07 date of the fair?Chris of Gelateria Naia says they're most interested in: "Mulberries, Cherimoya, Longan, Lychee, Paw Paw,Tamarind... our "holy grail" of fruit is my personal favorite, theMangosteen."They have also made gelato of feijoa that CRFGers have bartered. They need a minimum of 10 lbs. but prefer even more. Even if you don't get 10 lb. crops, perhaps several CRFG members can pool their harvests to make the 10 lb. minimum. If you have fruit that will become ripe between now and mid-September, please contact Megan Lynch at spidra@speakeasy.net so she can co-ordinate the barter. Your donation of fruit will help make CRFG's booth at the UC Botanical Garden event "Cross-Pollination" a big hit and hopefully that will translate into a bunch of new members for our chapter.

Redwood Empire Chapter Plant Sale

Next Sunday, July 22, is the Redwood Empire chapter's big annual plant sale. It's from 9 a.m. until 1 or 2 p.m. at the Midgley's Country Flea Market in Sebastopol, 2200 Gravenstein Hwy South (aka Hwy 116). Check it out, see what they've been grafting up there! Go early for best selection.

Festival of Fruit

Thinking of going to the big annual CRFG Festival of Fruit, to learn all about mangoes?

Think fast--it's coming up in less than a month.

Here's the Festival website, with all the info.