It was great to meet you, Harvey, as well as Barbara and many
others. I'm very sorry that I did not get to meet Joe. That was a
shame.

That was my third visit to the repository and by far the latest in
the year I have been. What a display the orchard was with most trees
covered with cracked and burst fruit, fallen fruit on the ground,
sunny day, blue skys and the winy smell of broken fruit all over. It
is interesting how different fruits age. Some just crack open, but
some open like flowers. Since I flew up there, I did not have a
knife with me, but none was needed. You could break the fruit with
your hands. I'd add a little to Harvey's comments.

First, I assure you, Parfianka is not just hype. When I first tasted
it, Jeff and I had just tasted our way through a great number of
undistinguished fruits when this one just stood out. The next time
was two years ago when we were tasting through a buch of Doctor
Levin's recomendations. Jeff pointed out the trees but did not tell
us what they were until we had tasted the fruit. We tasted the fruit,
loved it, then found out it was Parfianka. I also was impressed by
it on Saturday. I would describe it also as having a light cherry
like flavor. Another good thing about it is the juice. On Saturday
we poured the juice from the bottom of the bowl into a cup and drank
it. Exquisite.

Medovyi Vahsha: I love it, but it is a little controversial. Harvey
you found it somewhat tasteless. Some tasters here in San Diego
detect a bitterness that they dislike. I find it complex and
refreshing. I feel the same about Sirnevyi, Myatahdzi, and
Sogdiana. To me these are all a similar type of complex sweet, sour,
mildly astringent, faintly bitter to some in the case of Medovyi. I
love all these. I think Sirnevyi is the best of them, but Jeff and I
both felt that it and many others did not really develop to their
full flavor potential this year. Jeff said it was something about
the weather conditions. I think that all these are superb.
Commercial potential would have to depend on secondary factors like
fruitfulness, crack resistance, consistency, keeping qualities etc.

Out in the field, no new revelations particularly. We are still
tasting through fruit we brought home. I have to say that Eversweet
is good (sweet pink fairly soft seed) and it had a surprising amount
of intact fruit on it this late. We have also said that we like
Eve. We brought back some fruit. Also a lot was intact. They were
big and round and pretty like they should be. Seeds were hard but
crucnchy rather than woody. Color of Arils is light red.
Sweet/Sour, but more on the Sweet side. Jeff and Ed Stover kind of
laughed about it. Called it a pomegranate for kids. I think that is
the one they feel tastes like artificial cherry ("like a cherry
slurpee"). But we liked it. My daughter is 7.

Also is one called White Flower that another young kid tasting out
there that day liked. Big mainly white slightly blushed arils, hard
crunch seeds, nice sweet sour taste with that special kind of
pomegranate tanginess.

All in all it was an excellent day.

Best Wishes.

David


--- In PomWorldwide@yahoogroups.com, "Harvey Correia"
<harveycorreia@...> wrote:
>
>
> Today the weather was pleasant and provided a nice setting for the
> pomegranate tasting event put on by the USDA National Clonal
Germplasm
> Repository at the Wolfskill farm near Winters California.
Greenhouse
> manager Jeff Moersfelder organized the even with help of other
employees
> with additional help by Barbara Baer and yours truly (I helped shuck
> arils yesterday). Curator Ed Stover told the group that this will
be
> the last such tasting since they have reached out to hobbyists, etc.
> about as much as they can. He suggested that people that liked
> particular cultivars should contact nurseries and request these
> cultivars so that material can be made more widely available.
>
> We tasted 21 cultivars today. I didn't take notes of all of them
and
> don't have a complete list. I met David Silverstein for the first
time
> today and other group members Barbara Baer and Joe Real were also
there
> today. I also met Phil Pieri who is a member of another Yahoo group
> ("rarefruit") and they will probably add to my comments here.
>
> PARS Produce owner Khodadad also brought along his Pomegranate of
Saveh
> fruit to sample. He reported to me earlier in the year and
confirmed
> today again through his translator (husband of his
secretary/bookkeeper)
> that Paramount Farms has purchased 70,000 trees of this variety
from him
> in the last few years. He stated he was sold out through 2008,
though
> he could meet small orders of up to 20 trees per customer. He also
> reported that he had larger fruits of this variety which were
shipped to
> Japan and sold for $25 each. I have no way to verify these claims.
>
> Here are my brief notes of ones I tried and wrote about. Some of
these
> names may be misspelled from the original Turkmen names, but these
are
> the name on record at the USDA.
>
> DPUN0082 Sin Pepe - Large sweet arils with pleasant subtle flavor
and
> very soft/small seeds. This cultivar is also sometimes referred to
as
> Pink Ice and is sold by Dave Wilson Nursery (and retailers selling
their
> products) as Pink Satin.
> DPUN0035 Vina - Somewhat similar to Sin Pepe, smaller arils, not
quite
> as sweet.
> DPUN0109 Medovyi Vahsha - Did not seem to have much flavor to me
> DPUN0134 Myatadzhy - Nice flavor, dark red, sweet and soft
> DPUN0151 Sirenevyi - Nice flavor, sweet and soft
> DPUN0015 Parfianka - Very nice flavor, fair amount of sweetness,
fairly
> soft seeds. After all of the hype and build up expectations, it's
hard
> not to be biased towards this one.
> DPUN0113 15/4 Pamyati Rozanova - Soft and some nice flavors, but not
> sweet enough for me
> DPUN0081 Wonderful - Flavor good, seeds are too hard after trying
the
> above, not very sweet
> DPUN0108 Desertnyi - Semi-soft, flavor okay, but very sweet. I
believe
> the fruti I tasted of this a few weeks ago was sweeter and more
> pleasant.
> DPUN0105 Agat - Tart! I didn't like this, though some people
reportedly
> indicated they liked the flavor. Hmmm...
> DPUN0060 Al-sirin-nar - Nice flavor, good sweetnes, hard seeds.
Good
> choice for juice.
> DPUN0086 Cranberry - A very nice flavored fruit with medium-sized
hard
> seeds. A popular one with many people I spoke with.
> DPUN0167 Ink - Another one with nice flavor but harder seeds.
>
> Pomegranate of Saveh - Nice flavor, could be sweeter, seeds were
> semi-soft (smaller than Wonderful), dark red.
>
> Pink Tourmaline - a local selection from southern California that
David
> Silverstein brough up. David only had one fairly small fruit to
share
> and I was glad to be able to be present when he gave out some
samples.
> It was small fruit and soft-seeded, sweet, and a very nice flavor
that I
> struggled to describe. I want to try growing this one. Because of
its
> small size, it doesn't have much commercial potenital, however.
>
> I walked around the orchard and tried others and here are others I
> liked. I had hands/arms full and don't have anything written on
them
> except my mind, so here I will write before I lose my mind:
> DPUN0073 Kazake - smaller fruit with very nice rich flavor, hard
seeds
> DPUN0038 Balegal - Sweet, nice flavor, fairly soft seeds
> DPUN0093 Palermo - Nice rich flavor, semi-hard seeds (I think)
> DPUN0164 Utah Sweet - hardly any fruit on these small trees, but
they
> were sweet, soft-seeded, fairly nice flavor.
>
> Since I have fruit I brought home with me, I'm certain I have some
> others that aren't written about up above and I will hopefully add
to
> this list later. I'm sorry, but I don't have more time to spend on
this
> now as my other work is calling. Maybe in a few days I'll have more
> time.
>
> Harvey
> Isleton, California
>