Varieties of Note

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Persimmons— in particular the succulent fareastern cultivars—sell for a dollar and more apiece in the stores as curiosities, but they are native curiosities and delicious if ripened past the pucker stage.

Pawpaw or hoosier or Michigan banana is an ugly eggplantlike fruit that tastes like sweet banana custard if properly ripe.

Native Grapes: Fox grapes in the North and muscats (scuppernongs) in the South sell at high prices for jelly making. To avoid:

Mangoes and Papayas sell for several dollars apiece, and you see a box or two in every produce rack these days. But they are grown commercially (around Fort Meyers, Florida) on large farms. So are Kiwis and other true exotics.

Mulberry is good to distract birds from the cherry crop, but the tree grows large, with abundant fruit that is impossible to pick whole (without squashing it in the hand), that ripens over several weeks, and is seedy, bland, and almost flavorless. Mulberry juice stains—even when preprocessed by birds that will drop it all over your laundry that's drying too near a mulberry tree.

Ginkgo. This most ancient of living tree species is gaining popularity for some reason—indeed has its own promotional organization complete with T-shirts. The exotic fan-shaped leaves are used in oriental medications (but you'll need a lot of leaves to send to China). The fruit (on female trees only) is also used in oriental potions, but the thin layer of flesh that surrounds the inner nut makes a mess on the lawn and smells terrible. Thankfully, the tree takes 25 years to fruit, so young specimens will remain problem-free for a generation.

Osage Orange produces a nice saffron dye and excellent wood for Indian-style bows. But the grapefruit-sized "fruit" is inedible and makes a ghastly mess every fall. Back to Big Returns From Small Orchards

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