Edibles at the Conservatory of Flowers

The Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park has just opened a new exhibition, Edible Expeditions, lush demonstration gardens showcasing over 50 species of edible plants from around the world.

Photo: Nina Sazevich

The exhibition will be on through November 7, 2009. Click here for more information.

New Fruit Tree Forum

Dave Wilson Nursery, grower of many varieties of fruit trees, has started a new forum for discussing fruit growing. Click here to check it out.

Diablo Valley College Plant Sale

DVC Horticulture Department Plant Sale
Saturday, May 16th, 9 AM - 1 PM
(same day as our next chapter meeting)
321 Golf Club Road
Pleasant Hill, CA

Cash or checks accepted
For more information: 925-685-1230 ext 1985

Plus ceramic sales, hosted by the DVC ceramics department

Plums with no Pits

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are making progress in determining the genes that control pit formation in plums—the first step in a project to develop pitless varieties of this fruit.

ARS molecular biologists Chris Dardick and Ann Callahan and Prunus breeder Ralph Scorza at the ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, W.Va., discovered that a set of genes necessary for production of lignin is rapidly turned on specifically in pit tissue—not the flesh or skin—just before hardening. Then these genes quiet down just as quickly after the stone hardens.

Lignin is a material involved in the formation of pits in stone fruit. Fruit pits consist of the seed and the hard woody material, or stone, surrounding the seed.

The researchers' goal is to establish techniques to stop the genes' activity and prevent hardening of the pit, thus producing a pitless plum that would be more appealing to consumers. Pitless fruit would be a premium product that could provide higher income for growers and could increase consumption of these nutritious foods.

The idea of pitless fruits is not new. In the early 1900s, Luther Burbank, a prolific horticulturalist, crossed a partially stoneless wild plum with California French prune varieties. These crosses led to commercial-quality fruit that almost completely lacked the stone, but still contained the seed. The group used samples of Burbank's crosses for their work.

Read more here.

By Sharon Durham
April 21, 2009
Photo: Ripe plum fruit from one of Burbank’s remaining stoneless selections. The fruit is cut to reveal a naked seed surrounded by a cavity where the stone would normally form.
Photo by Mark Demuth.

Botany of Desire - the Musical!

No kidding!

In April 2009, director Alex Harvey and composer John Gromada will be artists-in-residence at the Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley, developing a new theatrical adaptation of the book The Botany of Desire by Professor of Journalism Michael Pollan. During the residency they will lead a workshop with an ensemble of student actors and singers that will conclude with a public work-in-progress reading of a section of the play on Friday, April 24th, 2009, at 5:30pm in Wheeler Auditorium on the Berkeley campus.

The reading will be introduced by remarks from Harvey and Gromada and followed by comments by Michael Pollan and a question and answer session with the audience.

The event is free, but tickets are required. Tickets are available online, by phone at 510.642.9988, at the Zellerbach Hall Ticket Office (Tues-Fri 10am-5:30pm, Sat-Sun 1-5pm), and at Wheeler Auditorium one hour prior to event.

For more information on this and other events that are part of this project, go here.

Scientists Sequence Citrus Disease Bacterium

ARS scientists have sequenced the genome of the bacteria that causes citrus greening, a disease that threatens the nations's $2.2 billion citrus industry. Click here for the full story.

Photo by Keith Weller

Sonoma Valley Olive Festival

It's the last month of the Sonoma Valley Olive Festival - sounds interesting.