Growing exotic fruits and nuts
You don’t have to spend much time around me to know that I love food. I like to talk about it, prepare it and eat it. Although I grow vegetables and herbs for cooking I don’t grow any fruit trees. So it didn’t take more than a mention by a friend that I might want to write about someone he met who was growing unusual fruiting shrubs and trees. What could be better than ornamental plants that are also edible? Over the past seven years Robert Hamilton of East Atlanta has become obsessed with acquiring, growing and personally tasting many different types of fruits (of both shrubs and trees) including Jujube, pineapple guava, pomegranate, pawpaw, hardy kiwi , Che and almonds. When I asked Robert how he got so interested in these exotic (and native) fruits and nuts he said he doesn’t like working in the yard unless it ” puts food on the table.” He also likes to experiment with different tastes and is a member of North American Fruit Tree Explorers, nafex.com which is “dedicated to the discovery, cultivation and appreciation of superior varieties of fruits and nuts. When I visited Robert in his living laboratory at the end of September I was not to be disappointed. My first tasting was of a jujube, Ziziphus jujuba. Although I never developed a taste for the candy often sold at movie theaters that is made from the plant, the fresh fruit was delicious. To me it was similar to an apple, but smaller and more crunchy.
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