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The Callahan Garden Page

Travis & Diana Callahan

11403 Wesley Road

Abbeville, LA 70510

Our experience growing fruit has covered 21 years at one location (Lindsey Drive) and the past 6 years here in our subdivision yard (Wesley Road). At the previous location we had 85 fruit trees and were testing many varieties of pear, fig, persimmon, mayhaw , and others. From the experiences gained over those years, when the flood of Hurricane Rita caused us to re-locate to this smaller property, we planted our favorite trees of each kind.

We enjoy gardening year round here in South Louisiana with it's fairly mild winters. We grow trees and flowering shrubs native to the area and also a fruit orchard numbering some 16 trees and several muscadine and grape vines as well as Blueberry bushes . These are some of the fruit we grow:

Mayhaw

Texas Star Mayhaw was one of my favorites.

Mayhaw fruit is native to several of the Deep South states and really thrives here. The jelly made from the Mayhaw is in our opinion the best jelly made . We also use the fruit to make pies, syrup, and a fine wine. The range of the mayhaw is from Northern Florida to East Texas, and from the Gulf to about the South Arkansas border. The fruit is very low chill and because of this can not be reliably grown on a commercial basis North of the Louisiana /Arkansas state line. This fruit is not familiar to most gardeners but a commercial fruit juice extraction factory, Grant Fruit Processing, is now operating in Pollock, Louisiana and it is possible to order juice from several varieties of fruit. My friend Billy Craft of Woodworth Louisiana, is a co-author of the book entitled Mayhaws a guide to orchard production and propagation.

The Mayhaw jelly is the best in my opinion and is the Louisiana State jelly.

I have planted two Maxine Mayhaw trees in my current orchard.

Jujube

This is one branch of a Jujube tree that we named Abbeville at the old place. The Jujube is a wonderful fruit that is unknown to many growers in the South. Also known as the Chinese Date, the jujube fruit , about the size of a small egg. We use the fruit to make a delicious syrup, then dehydrate the used fruit to make candied dates. These candied dates have a shelf life , in a zip lock bag , of over a year. The fruit is also eaten fresh from the tree when the color changes from green to mahogany. We also grew several other varieties.

We have settled on the variety Li due to it's large size which makes it easier to dehydrate and process.

I continue to be amazed at the Li jujube that bears at a very young age and goes on to produce very large crops.

li Jujube 16 inches high with 20 fruit in it's 18th month in the ground.

The crop of the above tiny Li Jujube tree removed prematurely due to the danger of the limbs breaking.

A branch from the Li Jujube the third year with the tree now at over eight feet tall.

Muscadine

This is the Ison muscadine which is one of the results of a 50 year breeding program to improve the quality of the native muscadine by the Ison family of Brooks Georgia. We also grow Black Beauty, another of their wonderful muscadine varieties here in our orchard.

Figs

We have grown figs for the past 27 years, 21 years at a previous location and in the sixth year here . The Fig family are everywhere here in South Louisiana. Of all the varieties Celeste is by far the most common. The Alma Fig seems to be more cold tolerant . We also grew five other varieties at our previous location and have found that the LSU Purple fruits very late in the year well after the others has stopped producing. This allows us to spread the harvest over several months. We eat the fruit fresh from the tree , make delicious preserves, and wonderful fig tarts. We had added Improved Celeste and Hollier in the final years there.

Five years ago we moved to our current, and much smaller location, due to Hurricane Rita and the flood that it brought. We planted two Celeste, one Improved Celeste, and a Brown Turkey. I am in the process of removing the Brown Turkey because due to it's open eye, ants get in the fruit the day that it ripens. I will replace that one with my favorite fig, the LSU Purple.

Grapes

This is Champanel, my favorite grape for wine.. These grapes are very tart and well suited to making wine, and bear very heavy crops every year..

Persimmon

Here is some of the fruit from our Saijo tree. This young tree is only three years old and had more than a hundred fruit in this, it's first year to produce fruit. This variety is dehydrated while still firm and when it is fully yellow. This makes a premium dried fruit with a remarkable sweet taste.

We also grow Fuyu persimmon here in our orchard . Fuyu is a non astringent persimmon and is eaten fresh from the tree when it turns orange color and is still firm. These are considered by us to need no spraying here at our place.

Pear

Leona Pear July 4, 2004

Southern Bartlett Pear is an unknown local variety named by my friend Larry Brown.

I am presently chairman of the Nafex Southern Pear Interest Group. Nafex is the North American Fruit Explorers which is a three thousand member amateur fruit growing organization. We grow many different fruits which we test for adaptability to our individual areas. We publish a quarterly publication called Pomona. I have included a link to Nafex on this page.

The Hosui Pear, my favorite Asian pear

When we bought the property, Mike Conlin, the previous owner had planted a sweet orange in the spot where we put our new driveway. In the meantime Mr. Mike passed away after a battle with cancer. We carefully lifted the plant into a container and two years ago planted it in the yard. This year the tree is loaded with fruit for the first time.

Our favorite citrus is the Page Mandarin

The Southern Fruit Fellowship is another fine group of fruit growers primarily in the South . They publish a quarterly newsletter with dues of $12.00 per year. To join write : Southern Fruit Fellowship c/o Rhetta Davis 2051 Evergreen Drive Shreveport, LA 71118

You can also click on the SFF page below to see the membership page