New York Times Daily Book Critic Janet Maslin picks “The Fruit Hunters” as a top summer read on CBS Sunday Morning News.

Here’s what she wrote:
“Colorful, oddball nonfiction about some of the weirdest stuff that ever grew on trees or bushes. Yes, there is a fruit that smells like skunk. Yes, there’s a grape-flavored apple. The author describes bringing a mangosteen to a party and using it as a conversation piece. The factoids in his book will be used in the same way.”

You can read her Top 11 here

That’s not the only summer reading list that’s getting fruity. Turn Row Books — “Rhythm and Books From the Margins of the MIssissippi Delta” — recently selected “The Fruit Hunters” to be part of the Chef’s Library Culinary Book-Club. Of the book, they said:

“This is a triumph of journalistic investigation, fine writing, good humor and a subject so enormous yet so overlooked in our day-to-day lives… We could go on and on reveling in the general fun and fruitiness of this book…”

And The Fruit Hunters is also a New York Times “Editor’s Choice.”

They call it “a lustrous and exhilarating paean to the overwhelming diversity of fruits on this planet, both botanical and human.”

We met in Outremont, under the cover of the night. You have to get Facebook in order to see all the photos. Go here, and if you haven’t joined the group already, do so!

Thanks again to Raf Katigbak for the photos!

If you want to have your own miracle fruit party, get on the waiting list at www.miraclefruitman.com. Trip the tongue fantastic.

Just looking at these cereal boxes gives me a contact high. They make me feel like I’ve just listened to a few albums by The Fugs.

In other freaky fruit news, a black watermelon just sold for over $6000 in Japan.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24997464/

Thank you to all the lovely people who came out to the Montreal launch of the Fruit Hunters!

Thank you to Drawn & Quarterly for hosting the event (and for tolerating the stench of an overripe durian) You can see more here

Thank you to magical Michelle Marek for her homemade rhubarb cocktails and refreshing lemonade! Check out her (and AJ Kinik’s) excellent blog here

Thank you to radiant Reema Singh of Cocoa Locale for her amazing cupcakes. (I apologize for comparing them to paradise nuts.) You are hereby advised to taste them here

Thank you to Dan and Patricia from Pop Montreal for hooking us up with apricot beer from McAuslan. You can see their blog here

Thank you to rockin’ Raf Katigbak for taking these photos:

(This last photo features Leiney Chiang, a talented young writer who recently won an award for an imaginative short piece on the dream life of a shopping cart. Note the digit dexterity required for her reverse Vulcan greeting.)

The New York Times Book Review on Sunday
calls The Fruit Hunters ‘jaw-dropping,’ ‘lustrous,’ and ‘exhilarating.’

Some choice excerpts:

“The coconut is technically a fruit, and every now and then it grows a pearl. The pearl – bearing coconut is one of some 30 surprising fruits that caused me to pencil an exclamation mark in the margins of “The Fruit Hunters”… Adam Leith Gollner possesses a talent as rare and exotic as a coconut pearl… Gollner’s is not the sort of talent one can develop. It is genetic, physical – an exquisite sensitivity of tongue, nose and eye… At one point early in the book, the author explains how it’s possible to graft branches of different, say, citrus species onto one plant. A Chilean farmer, he writes, recently made headlines with a tree that bears plums, peaches, cherries, apricots, almonds and nectarines. It’s how I see Gollner: the talents of a food writer, investigative journalist, poet, travel writer and humorist grafted onto one unusual specimen. Long may he thrive.”

Some other fun stories here:

The Montreal Gazette

The Calgary Herald

The Globe and Mail

Entertainment Weekly

and the cover story for the Montreal Hour

There will also be a three-part excerpt in the National Post on Monday, Tuesday and Wedsnesday.

I’m back in Canada after a whirlwind trip around the US. The tour was fun (thanks for all the fruit presents!), hilarious (fruitarians turned up to the readings), and weird (the lady fruit was banned from appearing on AM TV in Portland).

On Wednesday, the Miracle Fruit blew up, with the NY Times story on the flavor-tripping trend sweeping the nation still one of their most-emailed stories
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/dining/28flavor.html?ref=dining
Curtis Mozie, the miracle fruit man of miraclefruitman.com came up to New York for the book launch, and it was a pleasure meeting him. You can see some shots here

Come say hi if you are in Toronto, Calgary or Montreal:
TORONTO
Sunday, June 1st
10:00 a.m.
Ben McNally Books and Brunch
The King Edward Hotel

CALGARY
Tuesday, June 3rd
7:30 p.m.
Pages Books on Kensington
1135 Kensington N.W.

MONTREAL
Thursday, June 5th
7:00 p.m.
Book Launch!
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly
211 Bernard West
For more information call: (514) 279-2224

West Coast Fruit Tour Begins On Monday May 26.
Come out and say hi!

PORTLAND
Monday, May 26, 2008
7:30PM
Powell’s Books
1005 W. Burnside.

SEATTLE
Tuesday May 27, 2008
Elliott Bay
101 S. Main Street
Seattle, WA

SAN FRANCISCO/BAY AREA
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
7pm
Cody’s
2201 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA

CORTE MADERA
Thursday, May 29, 2008
1:00 PM
Book Passage, Corte Madera Store
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA 94925
415-927-0960

MENLO PARK
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Keplers
7:30 PM
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Dr. Richard J. Campbell and Noris Ledesma, the amazing curators of Tropical Fruit at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Florida recently started a blog. Check out their magical moments of mango discovery here

My favorite moment is this exchange with “the mango elders” of the Himalayas:
“When asked to reveal his favorite mango, Mr. Kaleem deftly side-stepped the question, explaining that to name only one would be a betrayal for all the other deserving varieties. So true, Mr. Kaleem, for this is like asking one to choose a favorite among his very own children. Love must be spread equally among all.”

In the Kesar mango groves of India (above)
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An interview with Gourmet Magazine’s wine consultant Michael Green on sprig.com, the Washington Post and Newsweek’s “online portal for ‘green’ content.”