California Bountiful Magazine - July/August 2020

Californians relish their first taste of exotic yangmei

Story by Ching Lee • Photos by Lori Eanes

Ask Yunfei Chen to describe the taste of the Asian fruit yangmei and the suburban backyard grower is stumped, instead offering how first-time tasters have described it to him: a mix of strawberry, mulberry and pomegranate. To him, though, these comparisons don’t quite hit the mark or do the fruit justice. “I actually kind of disagree with them that it

From seed to market in 10 years With fruit ranging in color from bright red to deep burgundy, yangmei is between the size of a Bing cherry and a smal l plum. Bumpy on the outside, the inside f lesh reveals tiny, individual strands of fruit connected to a pit similar to that of a cherry. Imagine a little, edible pom-pom. A s c i ent i s t work i ng i n d i a gnos t i c s a nd

resembles any of those f lavors,” Chen said. “It has a unique flavor of its own. Until you taste it, it would be hard to accurately describe.” Perhaps that’s why yangmei (pronounced yang-may), as it is called in China, has amassed so many different names, including bayber r y, wa xber r y, Chine se strawberry, yamamomo in Japan and, more recently, yumberry. Its scientific name is Myrica rubra, and it’s an evergreen tree in the same family as eucalyptus, guava and myrtle.

biotechnology—and known for his green thumb—Chen f irst started growing yangmei in 2009 from seeds a colleague gave him. A few years later, he joined efforts by members of the Ca l i fornia Rare Fruit Growers, an amateur fruit-growing organization with enthusiasts all over the world, to impor t trees f rom China and cultivate yangmei.

Though none of the imported trees lived long enough to bear fruit, Chen managed to cut shoots from them and grafted the cuttings to the seed-grown yangmei plants he started in 2009, successfully growing the trees to production. Lucero, whose background is in law and Chinese history, heard about Chen’s plantings through the CRFG group and approached him about starting a business. Limited quantities from Chen’s trees are expected to hit the market again this year. Though the fruit sold for about $50 a pound last year, Lucero said the high price served more to generate attention and that it won’t be “crazy-expensive like caviar” as production increases. “It will never be as common as cherries,” he said, “but we’re fine with that as long as it’s out there and available. People seem to be intrigued by it because it’s a beautiful-looking fruit. I think the taste will win over people.”

Yunfei Chen grows yangmei in his backyard in Fremont.

UntilChen’s backyardplantings inAlamedaCounty bore fruit in 2015, yangmei represented a “taste from my childhood,”he said, as the sweet and tart subtropical stone fruit had been absent fromhis life after hemoved to the States fromChina’s easternprovince of Zhejiang, famous for its yangmei production. Along with his business partner, Charlie Lucero, and several California growers, Chen has been working to commercialize yangmei in the U.S., where you’d be hard-pressed to find the fresh fruit anywhere. Chen and Lucero’s company Calmei is now the first U.S. supplier of California-grown yangmei, selling its first harvest last year at the San Francisco specialty grocer Bi-Rite Market. “I want to make this a major fruit crop in the U.S., not just in China,” Chen said.

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