03-19-2009, 10:22 AM
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#37 (permalink)
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Banana grower
Zone: zone 10
Join Date: Aug 2005
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Re: Student farm
Huh? How is this possible?
Quote:
WHAT'S NEW
Olivia Wu, Karola Saekel
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Andrea Tran, 36, has the most winsome smile of any farmer at the
Saturday Alemany Farmers' Market. Which is unusual for a woman who
holds at least two jobs -- as a software engineer and a grower of
tropical fruits -- and who drives from Palmdale to San Francisco
every weekend.
Tran inherited Family Fruit Farm in Southern California, from her
parents. The family emigrated from Vietnam in 1975.
Since late April, and through the summer, she has been selling the
most aromatic, floral jackfruit, with dense coral-golden tones, that
I have had, including those from my hometown, Bangkok. The fruit,
about the size of a 20-pound sack of potatoes, is beautiful to
behold.
Tran's smile and cheerful refrain is the trademark I've come to know.
"You want to eat it today, tomorrow or in two days," she will say
about her Haas avocados. That's the kind of care and precision she
brings to orcharding.
In the beginning, her parents' longing for the tropical fruits of
South Vietnam led to buying 1 1/2 acres, which they planted with
avocados and cherimoyas.
"In the '70s, there were no Asians and no Asian fruit," she says.
Those acres grew to 40 with thousands of trees. She now sells
cherimoya, guava, mango, longan, lychee, papaya, coconut, tiny
bananas and durian.
It's a treat to have non-imported tropical fruits so many times
sweeter and more fragrant than one usually finds. From now on through
the summer is her prime season, a paradise for those who miss the
fruits of the tropics.
The Trans planted jackfruit trees in the 1980s to buffer the winds
that were whipping their guava trees. They now have 13 productive
trees, whose fruits range from 17 pounds each to 65 pounds. Tran
sells the pineapple-jasmine-flavored, chewy fruit at $4.50 a pound,
whacking off chunks with a big knife. She'll give you a taste or tell
you how to eat them -- always with a smile. She even smiles when she
tells you she's sold out, often by 10 a.m.
Alemany Farmers' Market, at the junction of highways 101 and 280, is
open Saturdays from dawn until dusk. Visit SFGov: Alemany Farmers' Market for
more information.
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