David Karp | |
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![]() David Karp in front of an orange tree at the "Citrus Variety Collection" of the University of California, Riverside . | |
Born | David Karp 1958 (age 64–65) |
Nationality | American |
Education | Graduated from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, in 1979 with a B.A. in Late Antique Studies, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. |
Known for | Pomologist, writer |
Title | Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, at the University of California, Riverside. |
David Karp (born 1958) is an active pomologist, traveler and writer, [1] [2] who calls himself a Fruit detective. [3]
David is the son of Harvey Karp, a businessman, whose East Hampton home was reputed to be a palace. [1] He was fluent in Latin when he graduated from high school. At 20, while majoring in medieval art studies at Wesleyan University, he published a translation of the 6th-century Latin author Venantius Fortunatus. [4]
After graduation, he started a career in risk arbitrage and option trading on Wall Street, has worked for gourmet specialty store Citarella and acted as a provisioner for Dean & DeLuca. Recovering from a serious drug addiction, he changed course and began a new career as a freelance fruit writer. [1] [5]
Karp moved to California in 1999. [1]
Karp's photographs and writings appear in his weekly column, Market Watch, at the Los Angeles Times , and he has written articles for The New York Times , The Wall Street Journal , Gourmet , Smithsonian , Sunset , Star-Ledger and Saveur publications. [2] [6] He has been a guest on the Saturday morning food show on radio station KCRW. [7]
When the threat of citrus greening first appeared in the U.S., Karp wrote in the New York Times to alert the public of the disease's risks. [8]
Karp is an associate in the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of California, Riverside, [9] working to photograph and document the more than 1,000 varieties grown at the Citrus Variety Collection of the University of California. Displayed on the CVC website], these photos are accessible to researchers throughout the world.
He helped co-found the Chinese Citrus Germplasm Repository in Jiangshui (about 50 miles from Kunming), province of Yunnan. [2]
David Karp and Andy Mariani are co-founders of the Bunyard Orchard of heirloom stone fruit in Morgan Hill, California. [10]
Karp became involved as a researcher in a joint project between the University of California, Riverside and the USDA to prevent smuggling of fruit into California that may harbor insects that could threaten the state's fruit industry. The project—Unforbidden Fruits: Preventing Citrus Smuggling by Introducing Varieties Culturally Significant to Ethnic Communities—focuses on making disease-free germplasm of citrus and non-citrus fruit available to Californian nurseries and tree farmers, to replace the illicit demand. [2]
A non-citrus fruit that the project has targeted is "tejocote" ( Crataegus mexicana , sometimes called Crataegus pubescens), a fruit that is grown in the highlands of Mexico. Because it was not being grown in the U.S., it was often smuggled into the country and sold to Mexicans who wanted to use it to serve the traditional fruit drink called ponche at Christmastime. Now that tejocote is being grown legally in California, much of the smuggling into the country has dropped off. [2]
Karp is a member of the "extension advisory panel" for RosBREED, an organization dedicated to improving rosaceae crops through marker assisted crossbreeding. [11]
Karp has written several articles on the availability of the mangosteen in the United States, due to fears they harbor the Asian fruit fly. He wrote articles in the New York Times announcing the renewed U.S. law on July 23, 2007, when irradiated imports from Thailand were allowed upon USDA approval, [12] [13] and one following its trade at the local markets. [14]
David believes the greengage plum is the most delicious fruit on the world, [3] and traveled to Moissac, France (its primary center of cultivation), to investigate it. [15]
Calamansi, also known as kalamansi, calamondin, Philippine lime, or Philippine lemon, is an economically important citrus hybrid predominantly cultivated in the Philippines. It is native to the Philippines, parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei, as well as parts of southern China and Taiwan.
A clementine is a tangor, a citrus fruit hybrid between a willowleaf mandarin orange and a sweet orange, named in honor of Clément Rodier, a French missionary who first discovered and propagated the cultivar in Algeria. The exterior is a deep orange colour with a smooth, glossy appearance. Clementines can be separated into 7 to 14 segments. Similar to tangerines, they tend to be easy to peel. They are typically juicy and sweet, with less acid than oranges. Their oils, like other citrus fruits, contain mostly limonene as well as myrcene, linalool, α-pinene and many complex aromatics.
The persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus Diospyros. The most widely cultivated of these is the kaki persimmon, Diospyros kaki – Diospyros is in the family Ebenaceae, and a number of non-persimmon species of the genus are grown for ebony timber. In 2019, China produced 75% of the world total of persimmons.
Crataegus, commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, May-tree, whitethorn, Mayflower or hawberry, is a genus of several hundred species of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia, North Africa and North America. The name "hawthorn" was originally applied to the species native to northern Europe, especially the common hawthorn C. monogyna, and the unmodified name is often so used in Britain and Ireland. The name is now also applied to the entire genus and to the related Asian genus Rhaphiolepis.
The boysenberry is a cross between the European raspberry, European blackberry, American dewberry, and loganberry.
The mandarin orange, also known as mandarin or mandarine, is a small, rounded citrus tree grape. Treated as a distinct species of orange, it is usually eaten plain or in fruit salads. Tangerines are a group of orange-coloured citrus fruit consisting of hybrids of mandarin orange with some pomelo contribution.
Mangosteen, also known as the purple mangosteen, is a tropical evergreen tree with edible fruit native to tropical lands surrounding the Indian Ocean. Its origin is uncertain due to widespread prehistoric cultivation. It grows mainly in Southeast Asia, southwest India and other tropical areas such as Colombia and Puerto Rico, where the tree has been introduced.
Yuzu is a citrus fruit and plant in the family Rutaceae of East Asian origin. Yuzu has been cultivated mainly in East Asia, though recently also in New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Italy, and France.
Diospyros virginiana is a persimmon species commonly called the American persimmon, common persimmon, eastern persimmon, simmon, possumwood, possum apples, or sugar plum. It ranges from southern Connecticut to Florida, and west to Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa. The tree grows wild but has been cultivated for its fruit and wood since prehistoric times by Native Americans.
The blood orange is a variety of orange with crimson, near blood-colored flesh.
Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis, or the fingered citron, is an unusually-shaped citron variety whose fruit is segmented into finger-like sections, resembling those seen on representations of the Buddha. It is called Buddha's hand in many languages including English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and French.
An oroblanco, oro blanco, pomelit (Israel) or sweetie is a sweet seedless citrus hybrid fruit similar to grapefruit. It is often referred to as oroblanco grapefruit.
Dekopon (デコポン) is a seedless and sweet variety of satsuma orange.
An orange is a fruit of various citrus species in the family Rutaceae ; it primarily refers to Citrus × sinensis, which is also called sweet orange, to distinguish it from the related Citrus × aurantium, referred to as bitter orange. The sweet orange reproduces asexually ; varieties of the sweet orange arise through mutations.
Citrus australasica, the Australian finger lime or caviar lime, is a thorny understorey shrub or small tree of lowland subtropical rainforest and rainforest in the coastal border region of Queensland and New South Wales, Australia.
The UCR Citrus Variety Collection (CVC) is one of the most important collections of citrus diversity in the world. It is used for research, plant breeding, and educational extension activities on the UC Riverside campus in Riverside, California.
Eliza Tibbets was among early American settlers and founders of Riverside, California; she was an activist in Washington, D.C., for progressive social causes, including freedmen's rights and universal suffrage before going to the West Coast. A spiritualist, she led seances in Riverside. She became known for successfully growing the first two hybrid Washington navel orange trees in California.
Crataegus mexicana is a species of hawthorn known by the common names tejocote, manzanita, tejocotera and Mexican hawthorn. It is native to the mountains of Mexico and parts of Guatemala, and has been introduced in the Andes. The fruit of this species is one of the most useful among hawthorns.
The kishu mikan is a hybrid variety of mikan, or mandarin orange, found in Southern China and also grown in Japan. It is more closely related to the mandarin orange than to the common sweet orange.
The Dancy tangerine is one of the oldest and formerly most popular American citrus varieties, but is now rarely sold.