David Karp (Fruit Detective)
Encyclopedia
David Karp is an active pomologist, traveler and writer, who calls himself a Fruit detective.
David was born to his father, Harvey Karp, an extraordinarily successful businessman, whose East Hampton
home was reputed to be a palace. He was fluent in Latin
when he graduated High School. At 20, while majoring in medieval art
studies at Wesleyan University
, he published a translation of the 6th-century Latin author Venantius Fortunatus
.
After graduation, he started a successful career in risk arbitrage and option trading on Wall Street
, has worked for gourmet specialty store Citarella and acted as a provisioner for Dean & DeLuca
. Recovering from a serious drug addiction, however, he changed course and began a new career as a freelance fruit writer.
Karp moved to California in 1999.
; and he has written many articles for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Gourmet
, Smithsonian
, Sunset
, Star-Ledger and Saveur
publications. He can be found regularly at the Santa Monica, California
farmers market where he is a guest on the Saturday morning food show on radio station KCRW
.
When the threat of citrus greening first appeared in the U.S., David Karp wrote in the New York Times to alert the public of the disease's risks.
, working to photograph and document the 1,000+ varieties grown at the Citrus Variety Collection of the University of California
, these photos are displayed on the CVC website, and are accessible to researchers throughout the world.
(about 50 miles from Kunming
), province of Yunnan
.
stone fruit in Morgan Hill, California
.
and the USDA to prevent smuggling of fruit into California that may harbor insects that could threaten the state’s fruit industry. The project named “Unforbidden Fruits: Preventing Citrus Smuggling by Introducing Varieties Culturally Significant to Ethnic Communities”, focuses on making disease-free germplasm
of citrus and non-citrus fruit available to California nurseries and tree farmers, to replace the illicit demand.
A non-citrus fruit that the project has targeted is "tejocote" (Crataegus mexicana
, sometimes called Crataegus pubescens), a fruit that is grown in the highlands of Mexico
. Because it was not being grown in the U.S., it was often smuggled into the country and sold to Mexicans who wanted to use it to serve the traditional fruit drink called Ponche at Christmastime. Now that tejocote is being grown legally in California, much of the smuggling into the country has dropped off.
crops through marker assisted crossbreeding.
in the United States, due to fears they harbor the Asian fruit fly
. He wrote articles in the New York Times announcing the renewed U.S. law on July 23, 2007 when irradiated
imports from Thailand
were allowed upon USDA approval, and one following its trade at the local markets.
As a member in the American Pomological Society
he wrote a full review in the Journal of the American Pomological Society 64(1):5-13 about its commercialization in the United States.
David believes the Greengage plum is the most delicious fruit on the world, and traveled to Moissac, France
, (its primary center of cultivation), to investigate it.
David was born to his father, Harvey Karp, an extraordinarily successful businessman, whose East Hampton
East Hampton (village), New York
The Village of East Hampton is a village in Town of East Hampton, New York. It is located in Suffolk County, on the South Fork of eastern Long Island...
home was reputed to be a palace. He was fluent in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
when he graduated High School. At 20, while majoring in medieval art
Medieval art
The medieval art of the Western world covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art history in Europe, and at times the Middle East and North Africa...
studies at Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
, he published a translation of the 6th-century Latin author Venantius Fortunatus
Venantius Fortunatus
Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus was a Latin poet and hymnodist in the Merovingian Court, and a Bishop of the early Catholic Church. He was never canonised but was venerated as Saint Venantius Fortunatus during the Middle Ages.-Life:Venantius Fortunatus was born between 530 and 540 A.D....
.
After graduation, he started a successful career in risk arbitrage and option trading on Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
, has worked for gourmet specialty store Citarella and acted as a provisioner for Dean & DeLuca
Dean & DeLuca
Dean & DeLuca is a chain of upscale grocery stores. The first one was established in New York City's SoHo district by Joel Dean, Giorgio DeLuca and Jack Ceglic in September 1977. It is headquartered in Wichita, Kansas.-Locations:...
. Recovering from a serious drug addiction, however, he changed course and began a new career as a freelance fruit writer.
Karp moved to California in 1999.
Writings
Karp's photographs and writings currently appear in his weekly column Market Watch at the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
; and he has written many articles for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Gourmet
Gourmet (magazine)
Gourmet magazine was a monthly publication of Condé Nast and the first U.S. magazine devoted to food and wine. Founded by Earle R. MacAusland and first published in 1941, Gourmet also covered "good living" on a wider scale....
, Smithsonian
Smithsonian (magazine)
Smithsonian is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970.-History:...
, Sunset
Sunset (magazine)
Sunset is a lifestyle magazine in the United States. Sunset focuses on homes, cooking, gardening, and travel, with a focus almost exclusively on the Western United States...
, Star-Ledger and Saveur
Saveur
Saveur is a gourmet, food, wine, and travel magazine that specializes in essays about various world cuisines. The publication was co-founded by Dorothy Kalins, Michael Grossman, Christopher Hirsheimer, and Colman Andrews, who was also the editor-in-chief from 1996 to 2001...
publications. He can be found regularly at the Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
farmers market where he is a guest on the Saturday morning food show on radio station KCRW
KCRW
KCRW is a public radio station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, carrying a mix of National Public Radio news, talk radio and freeform music format. The general manager of KCRW is Jennifer Ferro...
.
When the threat of citrus greening first appeared in the U.S., David Karp wrote in the New York Times to alert the public of the disease's risks.
Citrus Documentation at CVC
Karp is an associate in the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of California, RiversideUniversity of California Citrus Experiment Station
The University of California Citrus Experiment Station is the founding unit of the University of California, Riverside campus in Riverside, California, United States. The station contributed greatly to the cultivation of the orange and the overall agriculture industry in California...
, working to photograph and document the 1,000+ varieties grown at the Citrus Variety Collection of the University of California
University of California, Riverside Citrus Variety Collection
The UCR Citrus Variety Collection is one of the most important collections of citrus diversity in the world. It is used for research, breeding, and educational extension activities on the UC Riverside campus in Riverside, California....
, these photos are displayed on the CVC website, and are accessible to researchers throughout the world.
Citrus Germplasm in China
He helped co-found the Chinese Citrus Germplasm Repository, in JiangshuiJiangshui
Jiangshui is a township-level division situated in Xingtai, Hebei, China....
(about 50 miles from Kunming
Kunming
' is the capital and largest city of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. It was known as Yunnan-Fou until the 1920s. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of Yunnan, and is the seat of the provincial government...
), province of Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
.
Bunyard Orchard
Karp is also co-founder of the Bunyard Orchard of heirloomHeirloom
In popular usage, an heirloom is something, perhaps an antique or some kind of jewelry, that has been passed down for generations through family members....
stone fruit in Morgan Hill, California
Morgan Hill, California
Morgan Hill is a city located in the southern part of Santa Clara County, California, United States. Founded on November 10, 1906, the city was named after Hiram Morgan Hill, a San Franciscan who built a country retreat home there in 1884...
.
Unforbidden Fruit
Karp became involved as a researcher in a joint project between the University of California, RiversideUniversity of California, Riverside
The University of California, Riverside, commonly known as UCR or UC Riverside, is a public research university and one of the ten general campuses of the University of California system. UCR is consistently ranked as one of the most ethnically and economically diverse universities in the United...
and the USDA to prevent smuggling of fruit into California that may harbor insects that could threaten the state’s fruit industry. The project named “Unforbidden Fruits: Preventing Citrus Smuggling by Introducing Varieties Culturally Significant to Ethnic Communities”, focuses on making disease-free germplasm
Germplasm
A germplasm is a collection of genetic resources for an organism. For plants, the germplasm may be stored as a seed collection or, for trees, in a nursery.-See also:*Germ plasm, the germ cell determining zone...
of citrus and non-citrus fruit available to California nurseries and tree farmers, to replace the illicit demand.
Crataegus mexicana
Crataegus mexicana is a species of hawthorn known by the common names tejocote, manzanita, tejocotera and Mexican hawthorn. It is native to the mountains of Mexico and parts of Guatemala, and has been introduced elsewhere in the Andes. The fruit of this species is one of the most useful among...
, sometimes called Crataegus pubescens), a fruit that is grown in the highlands of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Because it was not being grown in the U.S., it was often smuggled into the country and sold to Mexicans who wanted to use it to serve the traditional fruit drink called Ponche at Christmastime. Now that tejocote is being grown legally in California, much of the smuggling into the country has dropped off.
RosBREED
David is a member in the "extension advisory panel" for the RosBREED organization that is dedicated to improve rosaceaeRosaceae
Rosaceae are a medium-sized family of flowering plants, including about 2830 species in 95 genera. The name is derived from the type genus Rosa. Among the largest genera are Alchemilla , Sorbus , Crataegus , Cotoneaster , and Rubus...
crops through marker assisted crossbreeding.
Mangosteen
David has written several articles on the availability of the MangosteenMangosteen
The purple mangosteen , colloquially known simply as mangosteen, is a tropical evergreen tree believed to have originated in the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas of Indonesia. The tree grows from 7 to 25 m tall...
in the United States, due to fears they harbor the Asian fruit fly
Tephritidae
Tephritidae is one of two fly families referred to as "fruit flies", the other family being Drosophilidae. Tephritidae does not include the biological model organisms of the genus Drosophila , which is often called the "common fruit fly". There are nearly 5,000 described species of tephritid...
. He wrote articles in the New York Times announcing the renewed U.S. law on July 23, 2007 when irradiated
Irradiation
Irradiation is the process by which an object is exposed to radiation. The exposure can originate from various sources, including natural sources. Most frequently the term refers to ionizing radiation, and to a level of radiation that will serve a specific purpose, rather than radiation exposure to...
imports from Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
were allowed upon USDA approval, and one following its trade at the local markets.
As a member in the American Pomological Society
American Pomological Society
The American Pomological Society, founded in 1848 to foster the growing of fruit and the development of new varieties, is the oldest fruit organization in North America.-References:...
he wrote a full review in the Journal of the American Pomological Society 64(1):5-13 about its commercialization in the United States.
Greengage Plum
Moissac
Moissac is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France. It is famous world-wide mostly for the artistic heritage handed down by the ancient Saint-Pierre Abbey.-History:...
, (its primary center of cultivation), to investigate it.