The genesis of the trip was a visit to the USDA/UC Davis Germplasm collection of figs. (
http://figs4fun.com, click the forum where the pictures will be in the near future). I have other passions besides bananas. as I am sure most people do. I had requested an audience and tour of Joe's grafting extravaganza (something in the neighborhood of 350 cultivars of plums, peaches, apricots, citrus, quince, etc grafted on 15-20 trees), and ended up staying with him and his very sweet wife, and three children. Unbeknownst to Joe was an inquiry by Harvey about some additional banana cultivars for his collection, and I noticed his proximity to Davis, and then we discovered our mutual connection in Joe.
Fabulous time at Joes, and near heavenly time at USDA Wolfskill Repository.
Fresh Kanderian bananas and ginger-lemongrass wine.
Any east coast chapter meetong and any in Texas have a high standard to meet.
Thanx Joe.