I joined the tour of Gene Lester's Citrus Collection in the hills of Watsonville, North California. Gene Lester has more than 200 types of citruses. He is generous to open up his citrus collection to CRFG members and guests. The tour was yesterday, March 5, 2006. Heavy rain was in the forecast, and yet about 2/3 of the usual group came that day. We were spared of the rain the whole time we were there, fortunately.

There are 2 citrus tours to Gene Lester's farm each year, one in late winter and another one in the Fall. The one during the late winter could be a wet tour, but I never mind that. We were prepared to brave the rain, but it didn't fall until were on the road going back. The first citrus tour in late winter is the best, most of the fruits are still on the trees and you can taste them and if you like them, snip off some budwoods. The last citrus tour during the fall is a pleasant one, with no rains, but very few ripe fruits on the trees.

This is one of the best scionwood exchange, tasting the fruits and getting the scionwood at the same time. Nothing really beats that even if raining heavily.

Gene Lester's farm is on a cooler climate, atop a hill, and yet sheltered from winds. They have stronger maritime influence than here in the inland and perhaps at par with those in the Bay Area. So if they tasted good in there, for sure they will taste generally good in the Bay area.

Based on my personal taste test, here are the list of citruses that will be sweet in cooler climes like coastal areas, perhaps the Bay Area of California, generally in Northern California, and also in Davis. This is a partial list, noting that I did not taste the varieties that I already have, and also there are still other citrus varieties that are sweet but did not have fruits at the time of the tour:

The best ones hands down are the mandarins. The outstanding ones at that time are: Gold Nugget, Seedless Kishu, and Willowleaf mandarins and these would be really high on my recommendations.

These are followed (in random order from Memory) by:

Daisy Mandarin, Clementine Montreal, Clementine Nour, Clementine Oroval, Fremont Mandarin

Then followed by:

Mandalo Grapefruit, Chironja Orangelo, Ortanique, Wekiwa Tangelo, Minneola Tangelo

There are other really good tasting citruses, but cannot recall them at the moment nor have taken samples from them.

I have no time to evaluate and sample each and every tree, so this listing is only a sample.