Bill likes to pronounce it “sky-on”. No, monkey, it is “sigh-on”.
Here’s the deal: every winter trees go dormant, they drop their leaves, their energy recesses into the trees roots and trunk. Because of this, it’s a good time to prune trees, to shape them, keep them short, keep them shapely. The twigs and sticks that you prune off your fruit tree can be called scions. Some genius figured out that you can take scion cuttings and graft them onto other trees. Usually you graft one kind of apple onto another kind of apple. For example, a granny smith scion cutting can be grafted onto an apple tree that usually makes galas. After a year or two, your apple tree makes galas *and* granny smiths! It’s a freaking miracle. You can graft pears, apples, apricots, persimmons, plums, peaches, mulberries, etc.
And this Saturday, Jan 17, will be the Golden Gate Rare Fruit Growers Scion Exchange. Last year was awesome, with lots of crazy rare varieties. I successfully grafted a fancy French pear scion onto my boring bartlett. If you have just one fruit tree, you don’t want to miss this event. Even if you don’t know how to graft, you can learn. Even if you don’t have a fruit tree, there are often vines and plants for sale as well. Remember: figs, kiwis and pomegranates can be simply rooted into the ground!
WHEN: 12 noon to 3:00 PM
Saturday, January 17, 2009
WHERE: UCSF Mission Center
1855 Folsom Street
San Francisco, CA
Bring ziplock bags, masking tape, and some pens to label the scions (believe me, you won’t remember what varieties you get, there are that many!). If you see a crazy slobbering lady with orange glasses, do me a favor: give me a slap and say howdy farmer!
Food–it’s so boring. I mean, yes, it should be delicious, and lovingly prepared. And plucked fresh from the earth. But with the economic crisis exploding around us, all of a sudden our (my) food geek tendencies seem a little trivial. During the fat years, we all had more time and money to natter on and on about what we were eating, and making food consumption into a meta experience. I remember checking out a book called Food Is Culture at the library at UC Berkeley, and the librarian couldn’t help himself when he snarled, “No, food is just food!”
The Urban Orchardist 