Grafting fruit trees

Went to the California Rare Fruit Growers scion exchange in Berkeley this weekend, went to the exchange in San Jose the weekend before that, and now I’m deeply excited to be going to the exchange up in Santa Rosa this Saturday.
Yup, I’ve become a scion groupie.

Some wise woman at a CRFG told me that I should definitely go to all the scion exchanges to get a feel for how the different chapters operate. And she was right: the Santa Clara chapter scion exchange, held in San Jose at the awesome Prusch Park, was lovely, airy, convivial. There was even a six acre urban farm right there! I bought the most delicious cabbage from them.

The Berkeley (Golden Gate chapter) event was a full-on scrum of lovely weirdos, anarchists, urban farmers, and a couple old timers. There was a permaculture table and community groups like City Slicker Farms tabling. I ran into way too many friends (I was supposed to be volunteering) and bought the best cara cara oranges I have ever tasted. People were also giving away plants and limes. I rode home with a huge grin on my face.
I also scored some apple rootstock.

These beauties will be the rootstock for the Make an Apple class at Ghosttown Farm. Which reminds me: there are still slots left in the class on February 16!! Please email me if you are interested, novellacarpenter at gmail. It’s going to be great, taught by Bethalynn Black, who is a total plant genius. I’ll have lots of different scions to choose from; so you can make the following apple trees: mutsu, pink lady, honeycrisp, king david, pink pearl.
I hear the Santa Rosa exchange is all about apples, so I’m hoping to scoop up some unusuals, and of course, the mighty Gravenstein. The exchange will take place January 25th, at the Santa Rosa Veteran’s Building, 1351 Maple Avenue, just across the street from the county fairgrounds. Doors open at 9 a.m. (free) for CRFG members.
See you there!