Hi oldryder, This is the first post I've seen of yours, so welcome! Like your ideas. First thing when thinking of growing things outside your zone is research, research, research! We've been experimenting the past few years on a small scale and are about to try it big. Site location is the most important thing to get right. Next is picking the varieties that are (thought to be) the hardiest. Lastly is to be prepared to lose any or all trees that aren't rated for your zone. I lived in S. Dakota for several years and the winters were killer. Now, I wouldn't plant a zone 5 tree on a southern exposure, we plant on a north or east facing side so the ground stays cold later into spring to keep the trees in dormancy later into the spring. It helps to both keep the trees hardened off and when they do bloom it should be a little later in the season to hopefully escape frost damage to blossoms. We found this out accidently a few years ago. We planted Shiro, Superior, Alderman plums; Bing, Black Tartarian, and other sweet cherries. Also Madison, Fingerlakes super hardy, Contender, and Flat and Wonderful peaches. And some nectarines, point is, the only place we had at the time was a NE facing pasture, we had -24 degrees for two nites last year and they were fine, even got peaches off of 4 varieties and several plums. For cherries try Whitegold and Blackgold they're self fertile and late blooming. You have to try Blushingstar peach (it's awesome and rated zone 4). Just keep researching, more people will chime in and give good advice. More Later Jake

When I look at the 2012 USDA zone map, the lowest 25 miles or so of the American River (east from Sacramento) look like 9b (25-30 degrees average low). http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/# [Then again, we lived in Menlo Park, which the map seems to show as 10a, but according to the zip code search it's 9b. So maybe the maps aren't as clear as they look. Of course, it's also possible that the zip codes have moved in the intervening 48 years....]

Ding, ding, ding, I think we have a winner. I think it definitely could be the fruit of Turkish Hazel. I did a google search, clicked on images, and I see quite a few of the fruiting clusters that look about like the above, albeit a little less weather beaten. There does seem to be some variability in the number of "spikes" coming out. But, in the first image Flora posted, you can clearly see where a nut was attached, IMHO. I would have posted a link to the search result, but there were some rather strange images brought up that appeared to have more to do with the human trafficking industry, perhaps, than with botany, so I'll just post this one link, it's easy to do a search for more results. Here is a link that might be useful: Image of a ripe fruiting body of Turkish Tree Hazel

People grow citrus further north than you, in containers that they bring inside when it gets cold. If you grow them in containers and bring them in a greenhouse during the really cold spells they should be ok. Container citrus is a little difficult but many, including myslef, have done it successfully. I do it due to space constraints and poor soil, but have not had many problems. You will need a well drained potting mix, I use the 5:1:1 mix but usually add a little more peat moss to it due to the hot summer temperatures. They have developed a couple of cold hardy satsuma's, one being the Arctic Frost hardy Satsuma that is suppose to be hardy down to 10 degrees. Most Satsuma get fruit damage at about 28 degrees but can survive temperatures in the lower 20's if given a little protection. Planting on the south side of the house helps a lot. Covering without a heat source usually causes more damage than it prevents. Peaches and plums would do well in your area but would need spraying for worms and fungicide for brown rot. Peaches are almost always self fertile but plums usually needs another variety for pollination. Pears are easy but you would need to get fire blight resistant varieties. They can also take several years to start producing and may need another variety for pollination. Apricots are hit or miss due to extremely early blooming. They are usually the first fruit tree to bloom and the frost usually kills the blossoms. Pretty tree, but it is difficult to get ripe fruit. Bananas have to be protected from freezing for over a year to produce fruit. They will grow, but if the main stalk is not protected during an entire winter, they will not fruit. My neighbors have bananas plants that grow every year, freeze back to the ground and grow again the next spring. They will never get fruit since they freeze back to the ground.