Guess I am going to be the first to post about the PR trip. Another highly successful rare fruit hunt is behind us. Bellies are full. Cravings are curbed.

In attendance this year was Ethan, Sheehan, Warren, PJ, Noel Ramos, Gwenn and Ray. Gerry and Harry could not make it this year. Their wit, knowledge, and sarcasm was sorely missed. Sheehan stepped up to the plate and entertained us all with nursery stories and internet nightmares. To say the lad has too much time on his hands would be an understatement.

No "Assault on the Fruits of Puerto Rico" this time. It turns out that there were some folks at the University of PR that was a bit sensitive and completely mistook the content of Ethan's write-up last year. Their loss. Maybe next time they will join in on the conversations and ask for clarification before running off and complaining.

It was a jam packed week for sure. I left Sunday morning for Miami to spend the day with Warren. I got to check out his collection of rare fruit trees and see how his dragan fruit school project was progressing. One can't be in Florida and not stop by Harry's place. I always wondered how the hell he can pack so many plants in a little over two acres. The answer is very well. An impressive spread and impressive collection. Harry was the kind host and sat Warren and I down to a mango sampling. Hands down...the pickering was a winner. We then stopped by Noel Ramos' place. Noel is one of the big Annona guys in south Florida. One of his claim to fame fruits are the Big Red sugar apples. Lord are these delicious and beautiful too. He showed us his many trees which included many annonas, jacks, and abius. Next stop was Jeff Hagen place. Talk about a jungle! This guy has some really cool stuff! Plants freaking everywhere. So if you are looking for something odd or something not so odd, give him a shout. I picked up a grafted Big Red. Had to, ya know? So thanks to all of you above. I have pictures of Harry's in the link below.

Early Monday Warren, Noel, PJ, Sheehan, and I caught an early flight together for San Juan. We pretty much dominated the flight swapping stories, laughing out loud, and of course giving loads of crap to Sheehan. I think we had people several rows back trying to lean in and listen to our conversations. The flight seemed to be over as soon as it started. We got our van, picked out our California dude Ethan and it was off to the pork highway. We stopped at the same place that Andrew Zimern ate at. Everything was delicous. What a great way to start off the trip. The scenery was beautiful and the people all friendly. Pics of this also in the link. The ride in the van was interesting to say the least. The conversations were not for the faint of heart nor for children under 18. I don't think any of us have laughed so hard and so often in quite sometime. No one was spared...although the bulk went to Sheehan as it should.

Tuesday we met up with Sadhu for a tour of TARS. Tropical Agriculture Research Station. Wonderful place. Let's hope the USDA continues to fund it. Great trees and some great fruit. Their madronos were gorgeous. Sadhu was a real treat. Good humor, patience...which was quite necessary with six guys with A.D.D.(the tropical fruit version) running around the grounds. We hung out with him a while and he then joined us for lunch for more good times. A big thanks for his time and expertise. We boot scooted and boogied to Jardines Eneida...a big nursery selling grafted trees at insanely cheap prices. We met up with Gwenn and Ray there. Everyone snatched up some cool plants. The van looked like a jungle...plants were everywhere.

Wednesday everyone met up at Ian's place. Juan Miranda, another rare fruit and tropicals farmer in the area joined us for the tour. As always, Ian was the awesome host and tour guide. Non-stop narrations of the farm and hundreds of interesting stories. We had access to all kinds of fruit and could eat our fill...rollinia, marang, durian, pulasan, mangosteen, rambutan, abiu, stuff I can't even remember the names of. Many were first time fruiting so it was a treat for all including Ian himself. We took a break and Ian have refreshments, fruit, and meat and cheese trays set out for us. A big thanks to Robert and Ian's other main guy on the farm for helping out. The durian was fantastic as was all the other fruit. The weather once again was beautiful and allowed us to access all areas of the farm...those near vertical slopes included. It seemed like the more vertical the slope where the tree was planted, the better the fruit was. Maybe because of the difficulty of reaching them. The farm was breath taking in more ways than one. It was work going up and down those hills. Back to the shelter for more fruit, drinks, and laughter. The rain finally made an appearance. We had stayed into the afternoon and everyone was bushed. Luckily we had no other tours scheduled. Later that night we met Ian for a wonderful dinner. Hell of a guy.

Thursday found us lost in the mountains. Stupid Garmon. Sheehan's GPS phone was no help either. In between catching a cell phone signal, we managed to find our way to Sherry's place. Once again, a big spread of fruit was waiting for us. Felipe was there and joined us for her tour. Sherry is a sweatheart and wonderful host. Her trees are awesome. We all got to try the Amazon tree grape for the first time. May not have been as ripe as it could have been. Not real impressed.

We left Sherry's and followed Felipe back to his place for a tour. As always...his trees and fruit are impressive. When we came upon his garcinias...especially the achachairu, we were into that tree like starving monkeys. Amazing fruit. We also sampled many g. magnifolia and madrono. 86 years old and hasn't lost a step in those hills. He can still wear down Sheehan! Later that evening was another dinner with Ian. More great food. Back at the hotel, we shared some fruit, including durian, with the hotel staff. That was fun.

Friday was another morning of running around the mountains not knowing where the hell we were at or where the hell we were going. Cell phone coverage sucked but we finally met up with Gwenn and Ray at Juan Miranda's place. He's done a lot of new work out there and it is really looking good. Unfortunately his fabulous marang and pulasan did not fruit this year. We picked up some beautiful seedling plants. Keep your eyes open for updates...Juan will soon be grafting durian, rambutan, and pulasan and will ship.

That afternoon was filled by packing fruit and seeds to send home. We also bare rooted and packed up all our plants. What a pain bare rooting is!

We did not make it to Bryan Brunner's farm Saturday morning as planned. A few of the guys wasn't feeling all that great, and we still had lots of plant and fruit packing to do. Gwenn and Ray were still planning on meeting up with him so hopefully that all worked out.

That's all for now. Here's a link to my album. All the sub albums will be found on the right side of the screen.

Here is a link that might be useful: PR photo album