Urban dwellers have less space for fruit trees, less time to take care of them, less time to process or preserve large amounts of food. Recent trends in food purchasing by consumers embrace organic or natural production techniques as well as local so
urces of fresh foods. There is more concern now with “carbon footprints” and global warming due to the long distances that food is transported from “farm to plate”.
UNCE’s Orchard facility in North Las Vegas contains about 600 fruit-bearing trees and vines and 16,000 ft2 for vegetable production. In 2009 it provided experiential learning opportunities for volunteers while they provide labor for the Orchard. This program works in parallel with my Producer to Chef program, focused on developing marketing channels for locally produced foods, and my Mass Media Program through a fruit e-newsletter. I have about 50 active volunteers who come to the Orchard to “Learn by Doing” which they take home to their own gardens and help teach others how to grow fruits and vegetables.
My long-term goal is to increase the quality and quantity of urban fruit production and small-scale commercial production. Medium-term goals are to identify varieties that produce high quality products through evaluations and field trials and publish successful management techniques through peer reviewed publications. My short-term goals are to teach fruit growing techniques to volunteers who supply Orchard labor and teach the community through demonstrations and a public fruit e-newsletter.
By mid to late April there will be no fruit yet available but apricots and early peaches should be close. We will be nearing our end for asparagus production but there may be a bit left for harvesting. We may have some artichokes. We have 17 varieties of basil growing now for evaluation, about 22 varieties of tomatoes, six Asian type eggplant varieties, 15 varieties of asparagus, 12 varieties of sweet onions, about 15 varieties of garlic as well as apples, apricots, peaches, plums, Asian pears, European pears, table grapes, wine grapes, nectarines, pomegranates, persimmons, figs, almonds, pistachios, pluots, nectaplums, apriums, nopales, blackberries and others.