Source: google.com
Publication date: 10/22/2010

Enjoyed a crisp white peach or a juicy plum this past summer?

Chances are that 85-year-old Floyd Zaiger was behind them in some way, through his disease-resistant root stocks, groundbreaking hybrids or commercial varieties that arrive in East Coast grocery stores unblemished.

“He eats, breathes and sleeps his trees, constantly thinking about their characteristics,” his daughter Leith Gardner said. “For my dad, it’s the love of his life, besides my mother.”

Zaiger’s 140-acre property on the outskirts of the California Central Valley city of Modesto is his laboratory. He and his family develop new varieties the old-fashioned way, by cross-pollinating his acres of leafy breeding stock and selecting for certain traits.

The painstaking process has paid off, with a hybrid plum-apricot he trademarked as the Pluot, and in Zaiger’s international reputation as a premiere developer of stone fruit, which are named for their hard pits.

Despite his age, Zaiger cruises the grove in a golf cart, working on new varieties that will be ready for market in several years.

“The Pluot was game-changing in my mind,” said Tom Gradziel, a pomologist at the University of California, Davis. “The plumcot cross-existed, but he saw potential in the plum’s sweetness and the apricot’s aromatics and crossed it back with the parent tree many times to bring out those characteristics — sweet but no bitter skin.”

Zaiger developed interspecies varieties like the aprium (part apricot and part plum), the peacotum (a hybrid of peach, apricot and plum) and the cherub (a cross between a cherry and a plum).

Gary Van Sickle, president of the California Tree Fruit growers organization, said Zaiger is the most prolific stone fruit breeder in the modern era.

“It takes somebody with vision to understand what the marketplace is going to want in a decade,” Van Sickle said.

What started as a hobby for Zaiger 55 years ago grew into an international business that is still family run. His daughter is the operation’s general manager. One son, Gary, runs the nursery and the other, Grant, tends the mature trees.

On a weekly field tasting tour with growers, Gardner squeezed a wedge of a fruit onto a handheld device that measures sugar in the juice.

Robert Woolley, the owner of Dave Wilson Nursery, plucked a plum from a high, sunny branch and took a bite.

“Whoa! That’s a sugar bomb,” he said. “It’s got everything except size.”

Even though researchers have made breakthroughs in fruit tree genome mapping recently — and despite the company’s name — Zaiger Genetics doesn’t splice genes or manipulate DNA to develop new plants.

It took researchers across the country and Europe 10 years to build a map of the peach genome, Gradziel said. But genomics has its limitations, he said. The field is in its infancy and might never duplicate Zaiger’s work.

“If you look at everything that Zaiger’s developed, none of those would be predictable with these new techniques,” Gradziel said. “Zaiger’s has a huge knowledge base and a huge germplasm to draw from. With linear breeding, we’ll lose his kind of out-of-the-box, creative, artistic, intuitive breeding.”

Zaiger and his staff make repeated and complex crosses in successive generations to make a bridge between two species. Their low-tech methods are painstaking and methodical.

He collects pollen with an eye shadow brush from a tree chosen for its flavor, then brushes it on the flower pistil of another tree chosen for its durability or resistance to disease.

Each of the 150,000 crosses currently in the orchard has a number to trace its lineage back to its great-great-grandparents or longer. Zaiger can track the expression of each characteristic in the progeny.

“The first thing I do when we see a tree with good characteristics and flavor is to open up the book and look at its pedigree,” Zaiger said.

These days, the book is a massive database of crosses.

“This is my bible,” he said, opening a three-ring binder in his office and pointing to the branches of an aprium hybrid’s family tree. “From here to here is six years work.”

From thousands of crosses, Zaiger and his children select a couple hundred to grow in a secondary plot. From those he chooses a few dozen to show off to growers every summer. With their feedback, he introduces a select few new varieties each year.

Each generation of trees takes three years to mature, and it can take decades for a successful variety to return a profit.

“We grew up with it, so we know you can’t be in a hurry,” Gardner said. “There’s always new material coming up the pipeline and we know that the next generation is going to bring new breakthroughs. We rely on the work we did 10 or 12 years ago.”

The Zaigers hold about 280 patents. Their best varieties, like the Pluot, are trademarked. Growers pay a royalty fee of $2.25 per tree, and 15 percent of the sales from their crop to Zaiger and marketers.

The company signed its first international contract in 1962 and now has contracts across Europe as well as New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Argentina and Chile.

“Many breeders have successful varieties but Floyd’s contributions have been many and probably surpass everyone else for lifetime achievement,” said Eric Wuhl, director of research and development for Family Tree Farms in Reedley, Calif. “I don’t think a grower could grow from the beginning of the season to the end successfully without having Zaiger trees in the lineup.”

What’s unique about the show is that it’s totally mobile! The cast and crew carry the whole operation on two big trucks that go on-location all over California (in this case in the orchards) for each new show. It was pretty cool to see the lights, mic-booms, steady-cams, mobile kitchen, semi trucks, generators, power cords (Basically a full studio)  set up around peach, plum and nectarine trees. And all in a few hours - they worked quick!

Take a look at the photos of their mobile set.

The set kitchen was fully functional!

The star herself

The morning segment was more focused on cherries and apricots, but the afternoon they brought on Debbie Shahvar, owner of Buttercup Grill and Bar to prepare her famous peach crisp. The video below shows the actual segment they produced right in front of us!

Makes 6 Servings Prep Time: 15 minutesCook Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

3 egg whites, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 teaspoon powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3 fresh California Summerwhite® nectarines, pitted and sliced

Honey and Lemon Drizzle

1/3 cup warm honey

1 teaspoon tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 225°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff and glossy. Add cornstarch, almond extract and cream of tartar; beat for 30 seconds more. Spread into six 4-inch circles on prepared baking sheet, making a well in the center with the back of a spoon. Bake for 45 minutes, then turn oven off and leave meringues in the oven with the door closed for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool. Beat cream with powdered sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Fill each meringue with cream and arrange nectarine slices on top. Stir together honey, lemon juice and extract; drizzle over nectarines.

Per serving: 310 calories, 3g protein, 45g carbohydrate, 15g total fat, 55mg cholesterol, 45mg sodium, 1g fiber.

As I approached the tasting, I noticed my soon-to-be father in law gather in a group. That was the second time I had ran into him in the past two days! I must say, it’s pretty cool that we work in the same industry. As I walked around the tables, plates of fresh peaches, plums and nectarines were displayed on the tables. They were for eating, and I brought an appetite!

Variety tastings are an opportunity for peach, plum and nectarine ‘breeders’ to showcase their new varieties of stone fruit, giving the growers and other industry members the opportunity to savor the latest developments in stone fruit. Breeders grow and analyze sample trees to develop the best quality peach, plum and nectarine varieties that they know will cater to peoples’ taste buds. That’s what it’s all about right- biting into the best stone fruit they’ve ever had? Variety tastings gives the growers knowledge and expands their opportunity to grow new varieties that they know shoppers will enjoy.

Rootstock tours are a different breed, don’t mind the pun. Rootstock tours allow growers to see tree root bases that can accommodate varieties and help the grower to grow the new varieties they would like to plant.
They accompany a variety tasting because they allow industry members to observe the tree’s growth and study their development for growth of new varieties. This rootstock tour was at UC Davis Kearney Agricultural Center. As we hopped on the back of a trailer, we made our way out into the orchards.

So now that you have a brief summary of what variety tastings and rootstock tours are and why they’re important to growing tree fruit, check out the video. And, don’t forget to leave us your thoughts in a comment. We love hearing from our readers.

~ Sara

~ Sara

Have you ever noticed the pit of a nectarine? I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen one- but have you ever  really looked it? They are most fascinating! I never really thought about it, but today I couldn’t help but do a double-take.

One of the many benefits of working where I do is the fresh fruits and vegetables that are always around, especially during PPN season! I was going to fast for lunch today, but when I walked by the break room and noticed a box of nectarines sitting on the table, I couldn’t help but peak inside. I decided to give in and have one. So I washed it, took it back to my desk and began slicing it. I ate three of my four-quarter pieces and I just couldn’t eat anymore- I was so full! So I went back to my work. A little while later, I happened to look over for something on my desk, and I noticed the pit- sitting on my plate.

I never really thought about how truly unique the pits (stones) are. They have these crevices that the fruit clings to, and when you pull the flesh away, its shape is revealed. When you think about it- it’s all part of the bigger picture right?

I mean, the pit supports the fruit as it grows while hanging from the stem on the tree. But, the most important thing is that the piece of fruit you are enjoying has the flavor and texture because of the pit! It is the passageway for vital nutrients flowing from the tree into the fruit so that it can grow and be the best piece of fruit it can be!

The pit doesn’t have any benefit for us, and we shouldn’t eat them. However, you can plant a tree if, unlike me, you have the attention-span and patience. Actually, I recommend trying it - you may have a whole new appreciation for our growers! It’s not easy work growing the best peaches, plums and nectarines in the world!

Just something for you to think about - we’ll be in touch!

~ Sara

I hope you had a wonderful 4^th of July. For those of you not near us in the California Valley, it has warmed up significantly, and that’s great for California PPN (peach, plum and nectarine) orchards! A little over a week ago, I was taken on my first field tour. A field tour consists of visiting different growers and learning about their orchards and fruit, and meeting the people who work directly with our California PPN. The first orchard we arrived upon was in the middle of picking and packing California nectarines. Oh boy was I excited! As we greeted the pickers, I noticed a flat bed trailer with buckets of nectarines piled in them. Those would be the nectarines they were going to pack, and would ultimately be distributed to the world. I’m not exaggerating by the way- 25% of all California PPN  grown is exported to other countries. We’re not the only ones that love California PPN!

I learned that there is a specific way to taste a nectarine and test it for flavor and ripeness. Although to be honest, I was going to eat the whole thing regardless. By cutting a ‘v’ shape towards the pit, a perfect slice emerges from the nectarine. I was instructed to bite into it like a watermelon- just the center flesh, no skin in the first bite. This allows you to get an exclusive taste of the flesh to determine its flavor and ripeness. I realized I have a lot to learn because I love everything about nectarines. It all tastes ‘good’ to me! But as we discussed the nectarine we had just sampled, I quickly learned the acidic content and texture is an important part of determining the nectarine’s ripeness, and varies between the different varieties.

As we finished touring the orchard, we made our way through the packing area and into the grower’s office. He was kind enough to let us explore his orchards, and we wanted to be sure and thank him. As we conversed in the air conditioning, I quickly learned that he was a third generation farmer. He’s a smaller volume grower and packer, but he’s passionate about what he does, and takes great pride in producing quality fruit. I began to feel pride working in the tree fruit industry. It’s a family, and each grower’s goal is to sell their fruit, but they respect each other and the bond they share. Although I may not be a grower, I am a part of the same team he is. Our goal across the industry is to grow and distribute the best California peaches, plums and nectarines world-wide.

When I arrived home that evening, I was welcomed with a bowl of fresh nectarines on the kitchen counter. What a coincidence! My fiancé had gone to his grandparent’s house and they graciously gave him some nectarines that they grew for me to enjoy. However, before I indulged, I picked up the nectarines one at a time. I looked at him and said, “Do you know what this mark is from? Do you know what this coloring means? These are definitely tree ripe! Oh, and this one is a good one!” He stared at me, and chuckled, “Oh, so now you’re an expert on nectarines since you went on your first field tour?” I simply replied, “of course!” I say that sarcastically of course. I am on a journey to learn as much as I can about California grown PPN. This is only the beginning.

I can’t wait to learn more!

~Sara

I’ve finally made it! I have wanted to give to the magic of tree fruit for some time now, and it’s a pleasure to be here contributing to spreading the word about California peaches, plums and nectarines. But before I get into my passion, let me introduce myself.

My name is Sara, originally from the Bay Area, but after obtaining my college degree from a fabulous California State University recently, I have made my home right here in the Central Valley! When I’m not working in the tree fruit industry, I’m out on the lake, at the beach, or relaxing at my new home.

My passion for California peaches arose when I was I was very young. My mother would make my great grandmother’s recipe for strawberry peach cobbler, and from the first bite, my heart was with peaches. At that age, I couldn’t appreciate the hard work that went into each peach I enjoyed, but I have come to the realization that a California peach is no ordinary piece of fruit.

California Nectarines were introduced to me by my grandmother. She was a pediatrician, and was very adamant about us kids getting enough fruits and vegetables. Nectarines were my favorite fruit. The pit inside fascinated me, and my mouth watered at the site of my grandmother grabbing one from the fruit basket. She could sense me begging with my eyes, and would invite me over to share one with her.

With California plums, they grew on me as I grew up. I enjoyed them almost always fresh, sliced into pieces on my cereal. When I found out they were a good source of Vitamin C, well that was an added bonus! There’s nothing like plums in the summertime.

It wasn’t until nearly two years ago that I saw a whole new side to California peaches, plums and nectarines. When my fiancé and I first started dating, we realized early on that we came from different worlds. I was raised near the big city by a single parent who worked as a teacher. He was raised by his mom and dad who devoted their lives to their family, and growing tree fruit and citrus, an industry that his family had been a part of for more years than he could remember. I noticed at family gatherings, the chatter about the industry and the long hours my fiancé’s family would work. It was common for his Dad to leave and tend to orchards, saying “It’s that season,” as he left.

I never imagined I would work within the tree fruit family as I like to call it, but here I am, and I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity! I will be joining this blog as a contributing writer, and I cannot wait to share with you the many wonders of California peaches, plums and nectarines. Get ready; it’s going to be an awesome ride. We’ll be in touch!

~Sara