Several years ago, I heard about this
very strange tree that produced 40 different kinds of fruit. On one tree! That
sounded pretty weird, but it turned out the tree was produced - over a number
of years - by grafting, which has been done for... centuries? Millennia? A very
long time.
Sam Van Aken is a sculpture
artist who grew up on a farm. In 2008, he began grafting ‘donor’ branches onto
a ‘stock tree’. He was looking to create a tree that would bloom in various
colors. It was an art project, for him. After about 5 years, he had a tree that
bloomed in shades of red, pink and white flowers. The picture I saw was
gorgeous.
But the real fun, I think, would be in
harvesting the bounty. The types of fruit include almond, apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach and plum varieties. Each
ripens at a specific time, starting in July and ending in October (in the US).
I’m guessing that you could be picking several different varieties at the same
time. A true cornucopia of plenty!
Sam didn’t make just one tree. As of
2014, he had installed 16 trees of 40 fruits around the country. But he wasn’t
done. That article showed his plan for producing ‘tree 71’ and a picture of ‘tree
75’. He’d like to make an entire city orchard with these trees.
No 2 trees are alike. First, he starts
with a stock tree that thrives in the area where the tree will live. You can’t
put an aspen in a place where there are no other aspen trees, and expect it to
thrive. Then, over several years, he grafts on branches from various fruit
trees.
Sam has 250 varieties to choose from
in his nursery, some of them of heirloom, antique, and native varieties of fruit
that are no longer produced in any quantity. He also goes to local farmers in
the tree’s home area to get local branches to add to the tree. In this way, he introduces
diversity to the area, and conserves old varieties that might otherwise be
lost.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_40_Fruit
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/03/living/tree-40-fruit-sam-van-aken-feat/index.html
http://www.epicurious.com/archive/chefsexperts/interviews/sam-van-aken-interview
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