Fruit Salad: In the Can, On the Tree

A green-thumbed neighbor proudly displayed the newest addition to her garden – a fruit salad tree. After clearing thoughts of a tree with cans of Del Monte fruit cocktail sprouting from its branches, I decided to do some research.

A fruit salad tree, more familiarly called a “four-in-one” fruit tree, is a multi-grafted tree designed to save space, producing four different types of fruit, such as stone fruits – like peach, plum, apricot and nectarine – or four varieties of apples, on a single rootstock. In addition to the novelty, one tree offers staggered harvesting time, supplying fruit throughout the season.

After speaking to several area nurseries, including H&H and Moon Nurseries, the following varieties may be available, depending on the season:

• Stone Fruit Cocktail Tree: Usually includes a combination of peaches, apricots, nectarines and plums
• Apple Tree Varieties: A single apple tree can be grafted with four different apple varieties, such as Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp and Braeburn, providing both eating and cooking apples
• Pear Trees: a pear tree with four distinct pear varieties growing on separate branches.
• Asian Pear Trees: an Asian pear with several varieties grafted onto different branches.
• Citrus Combo: with lemon, lime, orange and tangerine (or mandarin)

To better understand this more-common-than-you’d-think phenomenon, I delved into the nuts and bolts details. Each branch is grafted onto a single trunk, meaning each limb grows its own variety of fruit.

The grafts are all created by using plants within the same genus. For instance, peaches and apricots belong to the same genus, so they could be multi-grafted to create a fruit salad tree. Because plums and nectarines also belong to this genus, they could be grafted alongside the first two.

Fruit salad trees can have from two-to-six fruit varieties grafted onto one trunk. The trees are often self-pollinating, which makes them good candidates for the urban parts of Long Beach, as they don’t need other trees in order to have a harvest. These trees are considered to be high yield and low waste, as the harvesting is staggered. They are often grafted onto dwarf rootstock, so they can stay small and can grow in pots or containers.

 A project that has been called a “fruit salad tree on steroids” is a result of a long-running project originated by Sam Van Aken, a Syracuse University art professor. Van Aken fused art, botany and conservation into one living entity. Created over many years, the tree has become a symbol of science and creativity. Each tree produces 40 types of stone fruit ripening from July to October.

 Begun in 2008, there are now 18 of these “Trees of 40 fruit” growing across the country, in groves and college campuses in Maine, New York, New Jersey, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan and California.

The California tree is located at Stanford University, near their Rodin Sculpture Garden. Aken said he thought of the tree as a sculpture, because he could shape it, depending on where he placed the grafts. Just in case you are thinking of investing in these living sculptures, a privately-purchased, full-sized specimen recently sold for $30,000.

I thought it would be interesting to research its namesake, the “fruit cocktail.” According to Webster’s, in addition to an alcoholic combination, a “cocktail” may be an “appetizer made by combining pieces of food, such as fruit or seafood. “Originally, to create an appetizer from a pun, fruit cocktails were served in stemmed glasses, usually reserved for alcoholic libations, and, sometimes, ‘enhanced’ with a splash of Grand Marnier.”

An alternate explanation is that, during Prohibition, to escape detection and to make some of the strong boot-legged spirits palatable, fruit was cut into small pieces and doused with alcoholic spirits, sold as a “fruit cocktail.” Take your pick!

Fruit cocktail may be the embodiment of “necessity is the mother of invention.” It is said that the canning industry developed fruit cocktail as a way to make use of fruit scraps, bruised or otherwise damaged fruits that could not be used in canning. Fruit cocktail has been a staple of the canned fruit industry since at least the 1940s, and was one of the most popular products Del Monte produced from 1941 until the plant’s closure in 1999.

The USDA actually stipulates the ingredients in canned fruit cocktail. Cans need to contain grapes, peaches and pineapples, with maraschino cherries and other fruit considered “optional.” The USDA required percentages are 30% to 50% diced peaches, 25% to 45% diced pears, 6% to 16% diced pineapple, and 6% to 20% whole grapes.

The USDA indicates the difference between fruit cocktail and fruit salad is that fruit salad contains larger pieces of fruit, while fruit cocktail is diced into similarly-sized pieces.

Fruit cocktail was marketed for use as a cupcake topper, for ambrosia, a fruit salad “popular at ladies’ lunches” with mini marshmallows, sliced bananas, shredded coconut and sour cream (the modern take is vanilla yogurt or, yikes, Cool Whip) added to fruit cocktail. A more modern take on the traditional canned fruit cocktail is a tropical fruit salad, containing mango and papaya.

We look forward to hearing about success with fruit cocktail on a tree or favorite ways to use the canned version!

Contact the writer at foodprof2@gmail.com for health or nutrition questions or for ideas for future columns.