U.S. fruit growers learn from an Iranian scientist

I love fresh fruit. I know, so do you, but understand: I geek out over fresh fruit. I've been lusting after a $75, heavy-duty cherry pitter, which would immensely speed up one of my favorite summertime hobbies, second only to complaining about the heat: pitting a huge amount of cherries in front of a baseball game (helps to be a fan of such a slow-moving sport), after which either Nadia or I makes something tasty out of the ones I don't accidentally eat. We're getting married in January, so it'd be pretty intuitive to wait and register for the thing. But I'm itching to buy it now. (I'm also getting frighteningly fast at pitting cherries the old-fashioned way: inside my mouth. I've half-filled a small bowl with pits while writing this post...but it's kind of gross to make a cobbler that way.)

Anyway: are you interested in reading about an Iranian pomologist who has done a lot to help growers in the Pacific Northwest learn how they can diversify the varieties they grow? Of course you are! As a guy who loves apples but hates Red Delicious apples, I found this article totally fascinating. Not interested? What if I told you that you likely would never have encountered a Fuji apple in the States were it not for this guy's work? Pretty cool.