Meetings

March 21 Meeting: Growing Promising New Fruits in SoCal (Tips and Tricks in Matching the Growing Environment)

Our speaker this month, Joseph Kanach, is at true California 'Rare' Fruit Grower. Joe travels to South and Central American in search of rare and exotic species that he then offers as seeds and seedlings through his online nursery, Hapa Joe's. He will share his techniques for successfully growing these tropical plants in the subtropical Mediterranean climate of Southern California.

Joe is a biomedical engineer by training, has a passion for teaching science and has been a teacher for 20 years. After COVID, he followed his other passion of growing rare and unknown fruit trees. He started a small niche nursery and traveled to Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, and extensively throughout Brazil to find exotic fruits. This year he is back in the classroom and growing and testing many of the species that he hopes to grow in SoCal.

Click here to explore the many exotic species of Annona, Duguetia, Eugenia, Plinia, Poureria and the other tropical fruit seeds and seedlings offered at Hapa Joe's Nursery.

Joe will be selling various seedling at the meeting that he says will grow well in SoCal. Plinia (Jaboticaba), Eugenias, Campomanesia and Myrciaria from the Myrtaceae family. Biriba, Illama, and other rare annonas. These will be offered at a 50% discount. He can accept payments in the form of cash, PayPal, Venmo and Cash App. 

Thursday 3/21, 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Attendees are encouraged to bring fresh fruit from their garden and other snacks to share at the tasting table.
 
This meeting can be attended in person and on Zoom.

First Congregational Church of Santa Ana

Niedringhaus Hall
2555 Santiago St.
Santa Ana, CA 92706


Joe collecting fruit from a Mulchi tree (Plinia inflata)

Joe's favorite fruit: Duguetia stelechanta

Join the meeting on Zoom at 7:30 pm (PST) with the following link: 

For more information contact Jeff Warner

Recent Past Meetings

February 17 Meeting: Passion Fruit Presentation and Garden Tour

Professor Jorge Ochoa has generously invited us to tour his garden at Long Beach City College followed by a talk on passion fruit. Jorge is the director of the horticulture program at LBCC, a passion fruit expert and explorer, and a frequent speaker for CRFG chapters around the state. 

This will be the second time Jorge has given our chapter a presentation on passion fruit, the first being in August of 2014. Over the nearly ten intervening years Jorge has continued his travels in Latin American countries searching for new and interesting Passiflora species to bring back and propagate in the college nursery. His new talk will include the results of a recent taste-testing he conducted to select seeds of the best tasting yellow and red varieties of the purple passion fruit, Passiflora edulis.

Note: this meeting is not at the usual time and location.

Saturday February 17, 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.

Long Beach City College 
Pacific Coast Campus
1305 E Pacific Coast Hwy, Long Beach, CA 90806

Park in lot #10 on Walnut Avenue: click here for a Google Map centered on the parking lot.

This parking lot has electric car charging stations, most of which are non-operational. You can park in any of the spots where the charging station is covered. The garden entrance is to the south of the parking lot.

Click here for a campus map. Use the Campus Views button to select the Pacific Coast Campus. The talk will be given in the QQ Building. On arrival, we will meet Jorge in the garden, which isn't labeled on this map, but is located just above and to the right of the greenhouse (labeled NN, Horticulture.)

Update 2.16.24 - click here for a closeup of the campus map showing the parking lot and meeting location in the garden.

Attendees are encouraged to bring fresh fruit from their garden and other snacks to share at the tasting table.

The presentation portion of this meeting will be broadcast on Zoom, but the weather may affect the start time. We will initiate the Zoom session at 1 pm and provide updates on when we expect the talk to begin.  

Professor Ochoa leading members of the CRFG West LA chapter on a tour of the LBCC garden in June 2023. 


Parking lot #10 with covered charging stations