The food came. It was surprisingly good, the lentils
intriguingly spiced and wrapped in filo dough.
Mairnon ate sparingly then put his fork down before
speaking again.
“I left quickly and never went back, though our
properties are less than a mile apart. There were
other growers in the area interested in collaboration
and I quickly forgot about Swope. About a year
later I attended a convention in Florida on the
cultivation of subtropical Malays/an fruits. I met
several people who’d known him and they explained
his behavior.
“It seems the man was a grower in name only.
He’d been prominent at-one .time,. but hadn’t done
248
Jonathan getterman
anything for years. There’s no nursery behindhis
gates, only an old house and acres of dust.”
“What did the family live on?”
“Inheritance. Garland’s father was a state senator,
owned a large ranch and miles of coastal land.
He sold .some to the government, the.rest to developers.
Much of the proceeds were immediately lost
to bad investments, but apparently there waft enough
left to support Garland and his family.”
He looked at me with curiosity.
“Does any of this help you?”
“I don’t know. Why did he give up horticulture?”
“Bad investments of his own. Have you heard of
the cherimoya ?”
“There’s a street in Hollywood by that name.
Sounds like a fruit.”
He wiped his lips.
“You’re correct. It is a fruit. One that Mark Twain
called ‘deliciousness of deliciousness.’ Those who’ve
tasted it are inclined to agree. It’s subtropical in
nature, native to the Chilean Andes. Looks somewhat
like an artichoke or a large green strawberry.
The skin is inedible. The pulp is white and textured
like custard, laced with many large, hard
seeds. Some joke that the seeds were put there by
the gods So the fruit wouldn’t be consumed with
undue .haste. One eats it with a spoon. The taste is
fantastic, Doctor. Sweet and tangy, with perfumed
overtones of peach, pear, pineapple, banana, and
citrus, but a totality that is unique.
“‘It’s a wonderful fruit, and according to the people
in Florida, Garland Swope was obsessed with
it.. He considered it the fruit’of the future and was
convinced that once the public tasted it, there would
be instant demand. He dreamed of doing for the
g LOOD TEST . 249
cherimoya what Sanford Dole had done for the-pineapple.
Even went so far as to name his first
child after it–Annona cherimola is the full botanical
name.”
“Was it a realistic dream?”
“Theoretically. It’s a finicky tree, requiring a temperate
climate and consant moisture, but adaptable
to the subtropical strip that ruias al. ong the coast of
California from the Mexican border up through
Ventura County. Wherever avocadoes grow so can
the cherimoya. But there are complications that I’ll
come to.
“He bought uP land on credit. Ironically, much of
it had originally been owned by his father. Then he
went on expeditions to South America and brought’
back young trees. Propagated seedlings and planted
his orchard. It took several years for the trees to
reach fruiting size, but finally he had the largest
cherimoya grove in the state. During all this time
he’d been traveling up and down the state, talking
up the fruit with produce buyers, telling them of
the wonders that would soon be blossoming in his
groves.
“It must have been an uphill battle, for the palate
of the American public is quite unadventutous.
As a nation, we don’t consume much fruit. The
ones we do eat have gained familiarity over centuries.
The tomato was once believed poisonous, the
eggplant thought to cause madness. Those are just
two examples. There are literally hundreds of tantalizing
food plants that would thrive in this climate
but are ignored.
“However, Garland was persistent and it paid
off. He received advance orders for most. of his
crop. Had the cherimoya caught on he would have
250 Jonathan Kellerman
cornered the market on a gourmet delicacy and
ended up a rich man. Of course, the corporate growers
would have moved in eventually and coopted
everything, but that would have taken years and
even then, his expertise would have been highly
marketable.
ment. In its native habitat the cherimoya is pollinated