Paving the way
I’ve been to Florida several times in the past…hunting other treasures during those times. Fruit? The only fruit we were looking for came in the form of lime wedges to go with the salt and tequila. So June of 2005 was going to be my first tropical fruit hunting trip/adventure.
This was still very early in my new hobby. But I am now aware of the possibilities. I’ve been to Thailand and have seen and tasted the exotic. My tree collection was starting to grow and the web was proving to be my avenue of finding these plants. Each day I started searching for any tidbits on mangosteen…mainly how to obtain them of course.
While browsing the web one evening, I came across a tropical tree list the Broward Rare Fruit Council had put up for one of their upcoming tree sales. Some interesting plants were on the list and hell, there may even have been mangosteen seedlings as well. I saw a contact number for an Erik Labrum. I had no idea who this dude was or if he’d even speak to me. But I called him out of the blue, told him who I was and what I was looking for. He told me that they do not ship plants. Doh! Not the response I was looking for.
But we did chat for quite a while and I could tell he felt sorry for this poor schmuck desperate to see cool plants and eat tasty fruit. He asked if I have ever heard of Bill Whitman. I had no idea who the man was. Erik gave me a lengthy bio and I determined the man must be something if he had fruited mangosteen in the US. One thing led to another and Erik invited me to join a tour to Whitman’s home that he was putting together. Oh hell yeah!! Erik told me to make sure that we also visit the Fairchild Kampong, Fairchild Gardens, and Fruit & Spice Park. No idea what they were, but they sounded promising.
While browsing the web one evening, I came across a tropical tree list the Broward Rare Fruit Council had put up for one of their upcoming tree sales. Some interesting plants were on the list and hell, there may even have been mangosteen seedlings as well. I saw a contact number for an Erik Labrum. I had no idea who this dude was or if he’d even speak to me. But I called him out of the blue, told him who I was and what I was looking for. He told me that they do not ship plants. Doh! Not the response I was looking for.
But we did chat for quite a while and I could tell he felt sorry for this poor schmuck desperate to see cool plants and eat tasty fruit. He asked if I have ever heard of Bill Whitman. I had no idea who the man was. Erik gave me a lengthy bio and I determined the man must be something if he had fruited mangosteen in the US. One thing led to another and Erik invited me to join a tour to Whitman’s home that he was putting together. Oh hell yeah!! Erik told me to make sure that we also visit the Fairchild Kampong, Fairchild Gardens, and Fruit & Spice Park. No idea what they were, but they sounded promising.
Fairchild Gardens
Our first stop was Fairchild Gardens. What a beautiful place. We rode the tram around and tried to drink it all in. There were spectacular displays of trees and flowers. Everything was pleasing to the eye.
Then we stopped at the Whitman Pavilion. Sure enough…it was donated and named after Bill Whitman himself. The man must really be something I thought. I was giddy with excitement. The pavilion, or greenhouse, was enormous and packed full of rare, tropical fruit trees. Could I have a greenhouse like this someday? Right!
Here I am in front of the mangosteens. I do not believe these were fruiting at the time. We did get to sample some lemon drop mangosteens which I thought were pretty good. After finding out it was an actual relative of the mangosteen, I kept some seeds. A slow start to my love of the garcinias/rheedias, and more rare fruits.
This was our first exposure to miracle fruit too. One of the Fairchild guys came out and handed us a couple of lime wedges to eat. Hell man, I know what a lime tastes like and didn’t feel like getting all puckered up. He insisted that my wife and I taste one. He wanted to make sure we understood that these truly were just limes. He next had us eat a tiny red berry. Not bad but not anything spectacular and certainly not much too it…mostly skin wrapped around a seed. We were then offered up another lime wedge. WTF?! No effing way! Incredible lime flavor…and sweet! It was like you had dipped the lime wedge in sugar. Even my wife wanted me to plant these seeds! These little surprises were just a mere tip of the tropical fruit ice burg I had yet to discover.
Then we stopped at the Whitman Pavilion. Sure enough…it was donated and named after Bill Whitman himself. The man must really be something I thought. I was giddy with excitement. The pavilion, or greenhouse, was enormous and packed full of rare, tropical fruit trees. Could I have a greenhouse like this someday? Right!
Here I am in front of the mangosteens. I do not believe these were fruiting at the time. We did get to sample some lemon drop mangosteens which I thought were pretty good. After finding out it was an actual relative of the mangosteen, I kept some seeds. A slow start to my love of the garcinias/rheedias, and more rare fruits.
This was our first exposure to miracle fruit too. One of the Fairchild guys came out and handed us a couple of lime wedges to eat. Hell man, I know what a lime tastes like and didn’t feel like getting all puckered up. He insisted that my wife and I taste one. He wanted to make sure we understood that these truly were just limes. He next had us eat a tiny red berry. Not bad but not anything spectacular and certainly not much too it…mostly skin wrapped around a seed. We were then offered up another lime wedge. WTF?! No effing way! Incredible lime flavor…and sweet! It was like you had dipped the lime wedge in sugar. Even my wife wanted me to plant these seeds! These little surprises were just a mere tip of the tropical fruit ice burg I had yet to discover.
Kampong
David Fairchild’s Kampong to be exact. I had only come across his name a few times browsing the web so knew very little about him. He was sort of the father of tropical fruits here in Florida and was responsible for introducing many different species…and not all fruit. All I knew was what Erik had told me…there would be tons of fruit trees. When we showed up, the only person we could find in the office was not really thrilled letting us walk around. But cash in her hand and a brochure in ours, she sent us on our way with only one warning: Do NOT pick anything from the trees or even from the ground. Hmmm. Not a good start.
This a shot overlooking the cove at the back of the property. This is the only spot on the entire grounds that was well kept. Everywhere else was weeds and rotting fruit. The lady’s parting words resonated in my head and seemed a bit unreasonable and pretty damn stupid to both of us. There was plenty of various fruit in many of the trees and gobs of them all over the ground rotting. It seemed pretty plain to us that the remaining fruit in the trees would end up like the rest…on the ground and rotting. We couldn’t sample a single fruit…even ones that have fallen to the ground? I had a few choice phrases that I spouted off to my wife several times and she agreed.
On top of this, there wasn’t a soul around. No one to answer burning questions. No one to point out what to look at or explain a freaking thing. We felt like if we so much as touched a fruit on the ground, let alone in a tree, armed men would jump out of the weeds and pummel the shit out of us. Very little seemed marked and if it was, we couldn’t see it. Bored and disgruntled, I didn’t even feel like taking pictures. We gladly cut this visit pretty short. I would have liked to have gone back to the office and asked for our money back, but we didn’t. The place may have been impressive in its day, but for us, that day had come and gone. It's altogether possible that with sponsored tours, this place might give out a much different perspective. But for me, I’d never go back.
On top of this, there wasn’t a soul around. No one to answer burning questions. No one to point out what to look at or explain a freaking thing. We felt like if we so much as touched a fruit on the ground, let alone in a tree, armed men would jump out of the weeds and pummel the shit out of us. Very little seemed marked and if it was, we couldn’t see it. Bored and disgruntled, I didn’t even feel like taking pictures. We gladly cut this visit pretty short. I would have liked to have gone back to the office and asked for our money back, but we didn’t. The place may have been impressive in its day, but for us, that day had come and gone. It's altogether possible that with sponsored tours, this place might give out a much different perspective. But for me, I’d never go back.
Bill Whitman
After the conversation and invite by Erik, I did some searches on Bill Whitman. I knew enough by now to know of the many accomplishments this man has made to the rare fruit world and the introductions he made here in Florida. What inspiration! And I get to meet the man himself!
This is when everyone first arrived. Bill wasn’t getting around well so he was on his scooter. Hell on wheels too! Anyone recognize that character with the ball cap there in the back? Noel Ramos. Some of you on tropicalfruitforum.com will know him as Floridagreenman. Noel is quite the rare fruit fanatic himself and has written a lot of interesting articles and given many fine presentations to various fruit councils throughout Florida. Of course, I had no idea at the time who this dude was, and looking thru these pics for the first time in quite a while, I just now realized it was him! Small world eh? I’ll have more on Noel later. Remember? I don’t know the man yet!
On with the tour. Bill spoke. We listened. That was the rule. You could ask questions when he was done talking. However, if you were female, you could ask him anything anytime you wanted! If you were standing near a weed, he’d point to it and tell you to pull it. We got the full presentation of his Bal Harbour property. His vision from start to present. From the high PH soil and high, brackish water table, to having 600 truckloads of special soil brought in to raise the ground level and provide more acidic soil for his plants. We learned of his successes as well as some failures. If a plant produced sub par fruit or didn’t produce well, out that tree came…even after waiting 10+ years for that tree to fruit! Then he’d start over with another cultivar. It was an education for sure.
On with the tour. Bill spoke. We listened. That was the rule. You could ask questions when he was done talking. However, if you were female, you could ask him anything anytime you wanted! If you were standing near a weed, he’d point to it and tell you to pull it. We got the full presentation of his Bal Harbour property. His vision from start to present. From the high PH soil and high, brackish water table, to having 600 truckloads of special soil brought in to raise the ground level and provide more acidic soil for his plants. We learned of his successes as well as some failures. If a plant produced sub par fruit or didn’t produce well, out that tree came…even after waiting 10+ years for that tree to fruit! Then he’d start over with another cultivar. It was an education for sure.
Here is Bill’s famous cherichuela and one of the very few left on the tree simply because it was out of reach. Another mangosteen relative. And unlike the Kampong, we were invited to eat any fruit we could get our hands on. When you broke open the bumpy lemon-like shell, the flesh inside was like white, cotton candy. It just melted in your mouth. You could taste the mangosteen resemblance. More seeds collected and another lesson in incredibly long germination times. Everyone was on and in this tree like it was a display special on Black Friday.
Unfortunately, the mangosteens were not ripe. That was certainly a letdown. But my wife and I got to try jaboticaba for the first time and see some other really cool stuff. There wasn’t a lot of other trees fruiting, or other groups had been thru and cleaned him out prior to our group’s visit.
I believe this was one of Bill’s rambutan trees. Notice the method of shading the plant? These were all done with metal conduit pipe and pounded deep into the ground. The shade cloth was neatly wrapped and fastened around the frame. When the trees were young, they were sheltered not only from the sun, but by strong winds as well. Nicely done.
Bill was very nice and very generous of not only his time, but his fruit and even plants. If there were seedlings growing beneath the trees, he told us to dig them up and to grab all the seeds we wanted to take away. I also left with pineapple starts and staghorn fern.
After the tour, his wife served us refreshments. We sat around and chatted with Bill for a bit before we departed his 2 acres of tropical paradise. Definitely a day to remember and certainly a high point for my first tropical fruit trip. My wife enjoyed listening to Bill which was great. And even years later, if we are standing in the yard and she spots a weed, she would point and say “pull that”.
Erik was kind enough to continue driving us around. We visited Bill Mee’s lychee farm and stopped by the Broward Rare Fruit Council grounds for a walk around. I was rudely introduced to my first Florida fire ants here too. Even so, it was an incredible day. So Erik…a big thank you for my first ever tropical fruit adventure.
After the tour, his wife served us refreshments. We sat around and chatted with Bill for a bit before we departed his 2 acres of tropical paradise. Definitely a day to remember and certainly a high point for my first tropical fruit trip. My wife enjoyed listening to Bill which was great. And even years later, if we are standing in the yard and she spots a weed, she would point and say “pull that”.
Erik was kind enough to continue driving us around. We visited Bill Mee’s lychee farm and stopped by the Broward Rare Fruit Council grounds for a walk around. I was rudely introduced to my first Florida fire ants here too. Even so, it was an incredible day. So Erik…a big thank you for my first ever tropical fruit adventure.
Fruit & Spice Park
Our days in Florida were winding down. The last visit was the Fruit & Spice Park. This place was pretty darn big and once again, we were on our own. And…once again…we were told not to pick any fruit from the trees. We could, however, grab anything that might have fallen to the ground. Whoopee. There wasn’t anything on the ground that could be picked up let alone eaten. The contrast between this place and the Kampong was night and day. Oh well.
Is that a sausage in my hand? No! It’s a sausage fruit! I know, I know…juvenile. The day didn’t look all that bad at the moment. But it had been raining on and off all day. Hot, muggy, and raining at times. A perfect recipe for mosquitoes. And let me tell you, they were vicious. If you stood in one spot for too long, you risked being carried off. And this sausage fruit I’m holding? That was the only fruit we found lying on the ground.
Nice lychee tree filled with luscious fruit and I can’t sample a single damn one. Don’t see a hell of a lot of fruit on the ground. Look. Look closer. Nope. Actually, none at all.
The heat, the humidity, the mosquitoes, the lack of anyone to question, and the lack of any fruit at all to try, soon wore out our enthusiasm.
All said, it was still a good first adventure. I learned a lot and got to try some new things. I would be a little wiser in the trips to come. For instance…visiting these places on your own for the first time is a lesson in frustration and can lead to disappointment. Make some contacts. It will make your visit so much more enjoyable. Most of these places have much to offer and having an experienced guide along will guarantee that you get the most out of them.
A bigger thank you to my wife. She endured several days of nothing but fruit related visits with no other stops at all. But I’m sure she was just perfectly happy being with me…
All said, it was still a good first adventure. I learned a lot and got to try some new things. I would be a little wiser in the trips to come. For instance…visiting these places on your own for the first time is a lesson in frustration and can lead to disappointment. Make some contacts. It will make your visit so much more enjoyable. Most of these places have much to offer and having an experienced guide along will guarantee that you get the most out of them.
A bigger thank you to my wife. She endured several days of nothing but fruit related visits with no other stops at all. But I’m sure she was just perfectly happy being with me…
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