Sometimes you learn about a tree with flavorful fruit that you had never heard of before and wonder what took you so long. Or maybe you heard of the tree, but had put it out of your mind due to its absence from gardens and nurseries, in addition to its fruit being nowhere to be found in your grocery store’s produce section.

Learning about unfamiliar fruit has been a recurring experience for me this year as I followed the ripening of fruits in “Jacques’ Food Garden,” a monthly feature on Greg Alder’s website ( gregalder.com ). Each month this year, Alder visited Jacques to see which fruits were ripening in his garden — actually, an expansive hillside collection of 200 fruiting trees, shrubs, and vines. Videos of monthly tours through Jaques’ garden are available on Alder’s site.

Jacqu

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