Bluegrass Fruit Showcase

Click Here for Printable Registration Form

Lodging & Travel. The Bluegrass Fruit Showcase will be headquartered at the Holiday Inn North located just off I-64 at 1950 Newtown Pike, Lexington, KY40511(Phone 859-233-0512). Rooms are available at $72.00 per night (single or double) plus applicable tax. Mention North American Fruit Explorers to get this rate. (The regular weekday rate is $109.00.) Holiday Inn is located just off I-64 and west of I-75. The Lexington Airport (LEX) is around 10 miles from the Holiday Inn and free shuttle service is available.

Meeting Overview

The registration desk will be open at 3:00 pm on Wednesday, August 30 with several NAFEX/SFF Board members assisting incoming folks.

Beginning around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 30, UK Horticulture Department Chair, Dwayne Ingram will kick off an official “Welcome Reception, Social, Show &Tell”. Immediately thereafter, Tom Cottrell will host a “Kentucky Wine Tasting”. You are encouraged to bring fruit samples, jams, jellies, etc. to share (and brag about!).

Horticulture Auction. Jerry Lehman is spearheading an auction to garner operational funds for NAFEX. Displays of items will begin on Wed. (Aug. 30) in the afternoon in the Lexington Room with the live auction being held at 8:30 (after the banquet) on Thursday night. If you have items (including live potted plants) to donate, please contact Jerry for details. If you are not attending and want to donate items for the auction, please ship them to Ms. Letitia Damron, attn: NAFEX Auction at the Holiday Inn.

Lectures and Speakers. Thursday’s (Aug. 31) presentations will begin at 8:00 a.m. and will consist of many diverse subjects relating to the following.

Fruit Culture Worldwide (including Southern Asia and Eastern Russia)
Fruit Varieties (including minor or obscure fruits)
Fruit Breeding (professional and amateur) and Propagation (including a hands-on demonstration by some of NAFEX’s best).
Fruit Culture History, Processing and Winemaking.

Banquet. On Thursday night, we’ll feast on a Kentucky buffet of barbequed ribs, catfish and all the trimmings. Entertainment will be furnished by Dr. John Clark of the University of Arkansas. His presentation is entitled “Pouring Cold Molasses or NewVariety Introduction: Which Moves Quicker?” I heard a version of this a few years ago and it is not only very informative, but is truly hilarious regarding the trials and trivia (some aspects of the patenting process drift toward being goofy!) of the entire plant introduction process. The evaluation process (finding the winners) alone presents some interesting twists.


Field Tours. On Friday, September 1 we will leave at 8:00 a.m. via bus to tour the UKHorticulture Research Farm. We’ll look at plots of Blackberry, Grape, Blueberry, Strawberry, Apple, vegetables (which includes many new and exotic melons, tomato and a sustainable vegetable production trial), woody ornamentals and flowers.

Additionally, NAFEX member Bob Capshew will demonstrate his extraordinarily efficient (and inexpensive) cider press.

At approximately 10:45 a.m. we’ll travel to Boyd Orchard of Versailles, KY. Boyd Orchard is a premier retail operation consisting of 24 acres of apples (many newer varieties), 6 acres of peaches, 2 acres of Asian and European pear and 3 acres of strawberry. We’ll have a buffet lunch at Boyd Orchards around Noon.

The afternoon will bring a tour of Kentucky State University Research Farm located just outside of Frankfort, KY. KSU is the home of the National Germplasm Repositoryfor Pawpaw. Kirk Pomper will lead a tour of this gorgeous planting (I’ve walked it many times over the years). We should have a wide range of varieties to sample. Additionally Kirk will arrange to have pawpaw ice cream as an added treat. We’ll also see a Primo-cane Blackberry variety trial, Current and Gooseberry Trials, and Tom Webster will discuss his work with Honeybees.

We’ll return to the motel around 5 pm.

Other local orchards of interest to many NAFEX members (lots of unusual varieties) include the following. And I strongly encourage your visit either or both of these fruit producing facilities.

Evans Orchard and Cider Mill
180 Stone Rd.
Georgetown, KY 40324
Ph. 502-863-2255

Evans grows some 8 acres of apples, 3 acres of peaches, 1 acre of pears, 1 acre of blueberries and 20 acres + of vegetables.
Check them out at www.evansorchard.com for more detail and directions.

ReedValley Orchard
239 Lail Lane
Paris, KY 40361
Ph. 859-987-6480

Reed’s grows 10 acres of apples (40 or more varieties), 4 acres of peaches, 2 acres of pears (lots of Asian types), 1.5 acres of blueberries, 1.5 acres of thorn-less blackberry and raspberry. Check them out at www.reedvalleyorchard.com for more detail and directions.

Caludi’s Fields
344 Atwood Dr.
Lexington, KY 40515
Ph. 859-275-2374

Caludi’s Fields grows Strawberries, Blueberries, Thorne-less blackberries, Raspberries and vegetables.

Caludi’s is located across the road from the UK Research Farm just off Nicholasville Rd. ( US 27).

Bramble Ridge Orchard
2726 Osborne Rd.
Mt. Sterling, KY 40353
Ph. 859-498-9123

Bramble Ridge grows apples (high density and trellised), blackberries and vegetables.

If you have questions or special needs, please contact the following.

Ed Fackler, phone 937-667-2491 ext. 3007 (day time) or 937-667-0680 (evening or weekend), or email at efackler -AT- woh.rr.com.

John Strang, phone 859-257-5685 (day time) or 859-396-9311 (cell) or email jstrang -AT- uky.edu.

A Note from Ed. You should know that this area of the country is located in mid zone 6 with average late August daytime temperatures in the upper 80s and night time temperatures in the low-70s. The local geography is fabulous with many rural areas kept pristine for decades. It is so wonderful that if you’d like to phone heaven from either the UK Research Farm or the KY-State Research Farm, it would be a local call!
I am very happy with the entire program. UK specialists have been extremely helpful and enthusiastic about hosting both NAFEX and SFF. And the line up of lectures is much better than I could ever hope for. Needless to say, I look forward to see you all this fall and feel confident that this meeting will be both very entertaining and educational.