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El Cerrito resident grows exotic fruit in his own backyard, and maybe yours, too

Tom Addison with his Pakistan mulberry. Credit: Paulina Barrack

From Asian plums to sapotes and Persian mulberries, Tom Addison plants fruits and vegetables across patches of unused land in the East Bay.

By Paulina Barrack
Nosh
May 19 2022

Excerpt:

“I grow a wide variety of fruit, from things you’ve heard of like Asian plums, or apricots or pears, but also a lot of less common things like sapotes or Persian mulberries,” Addison said. “A lot of [fruit selection] is trial and error, for decades at this point. But I do tend to look [for plants] from zones of the world that have similar climates.”

When Tom is not harvesting fruit to sell, he helps other clients who are interested in growing fruit in their own backyards by offering horticultural consultation and custom grafting.

“Maybe somebody’s got an avocado tree that’s fifty years old, and never fruits,” Addison said. “That’s kind of a waste of photosynthesis I would say, although maybe it is providing some shade to the backyard, but why not get some fruit on that tree? So people hire me to come in and convert a tree that never fruits into a tree that’s making lots of fruit.”

Most of Addison’s participants in his urban farming project have been friends or acquaintances, with others finding out about his fruit harvesting through word-of-mouth. Since Addison is retired, he plans to keep his businesses fairly low profile. Despite this, he’s still figuring out ways to adapt and, well, grow. “I’m always experimenting, all the time,” Addison said.

Read the complete article here.