I believe it's a variety of japanese persimmon called the "tamopan". It's astringent until fully ripe, then it turns sweet and rich. I have not tasted it. Perhaps your friend picked it off the tree alittle early. The picture on the website shows it to be reddish-orange - looks yummy! I'm going to plant a Fuyu (non-astringent), and possibly one other non-astringent variety, when they show up in the nurseries this winter. Happy holidays! June Here is a link that might be useful: tamopan persimmon

Wow, thanks so much everyone! We will take up the suggestion to stay on 101 to Florence and then go to Eugene. Deanna I will call you for sure, I'd love to meet up, and a salad from your garden would be a delicious honor if it's not too much trouble. We're in San Francisco right now, and I think it will be 3 or 4 days till we get to Eugene. From there we'll probably go to Corvallis just to spend some more time in the lush part since we've seen plenty of desert on our trip. Then across to Sisters, maybe Redmond, then Bend. Sounds like we'll be missing the fruit season, but we've also been keeping a list of all the food we've seen along the way: garlic and onions in trucks on the highway, artichokes growing along the road, lettuce, cauliflower, lots of strawberries, and more. So it will be cool to see the fields and orchards along the way even if the stands aren't open. And of course we love bottled grapes...by raw I just meant that we don't have a stove to cook onions or asparagus! Jeff loves pinot noir so maybe we'll tour a winery. The lava caves sound cool, and we're hoping to go to hot springs in Oregon too, since we haven't stopped in any along the way. I think lava flows, wineries, and hot springs are a good substitute for raspberries. We'll be getting back to Virginia just in time for berry season anyway. Thanks for all the tips! Any suggestions for hot springs would be great. Looks like we'll be spending 4 or 5 nights in Oregon! That will be great. I wish we could make the Hood River fruit loop, but I think that's too far out of the way...if we had another week we would have gone all the way to visit friends in Seattle, but I have to start work June 18 and we want to stop off at Mount Rushmore and in Chicago. Bejay, for some reason I thought you were in Texas! Too bad, we could have met up. We've really enjoyed highway 1. Thanks again for all the help and I will report back as our trip progresses! Melissa

Almost forgot; if it posts right, here is the basic core of the course outling: Session 1 Introduction to trees Explanation of genus, species and variety + ordering purchasing Fitting trees to a landscape design or property Basic tree identification (ID) characteristics Tree anatomy basics Relationship between trees and soil Selecting trees and transporting Installation / planting Tree support and protection Basic diagnosis (12 signs of hazard trees - #1 to #6) Session 2 Installation / planting Tree support and protection Basic diagnosis (12 signs of hazard trees - #7 to #12) pruning a. Reasons and benefits b. Tools c. Safety d. Guidelines e. Strategy Watering Mulching a. Benefits of mulch b. Conditioning / polysaccharides and soil structure Transplanting Sunburn Tree topping and resulting problems Crown reduction as an alternative to topping Session 3 Tree topping and resulting problems Crown reduction as an alternative to topping Effects of herbicides on trees Effects of herbicides on soils and the impact to trees Mycorrhizae Fertilizer Apparent tree problem (shedding foliage) Design and Trees  avoiding problems (dripping & cars, fruit & stains, etc.) Wound dressing effects Session 4 Deciduous Trees (Different genus & species and pros & cons) Evergreen Trees (Different genus & species and pros & cons) Deciduous Conifers  introduction Trees and energy conservation Attractive characteristics (bark, leaves, irregularities) Defensible home wildfire safety and trees. Roots (lawn, sidewalks, barriers, etc.)

11am on would be considered full sun. Really, the idea of full/part sun comes from UK growers. In Oregon, you get double the sun hours than the UK. So a half day of sun here is equal to full day in europe. In SoCal, we get triple the hours than the UK growers. So I grow everything in part sun places. In SoCal, I don't grow anything in the areas that actually get 100% sun against the house from sun up to sun down. It's just too brutal on the plants. I have a dwarf lime under an avocado that produces more than I could ever use. Figs appreciate some shade actually. I had mine on a south wall in pots that were getting blasted. I couldn't water enough so the fruit wasn't fully developed. Now, I have them in dappled shade. Commercial growers from CA to OR use poly tunnels or shade cloth to prevent the fruit from getting nuked by the sun. Not every crop needs it, but many appreciate it. If I could, I'd grow everything under poly UV panels like Fruitnut Z7 above, he has an amazing setup :)