Growing Cherries and Exotic Fruits with Steve Murray 

This month's speaker was Steve Murray, a long-time multi-generational cherry farmer.
From Steve:
"I manage all organic production, organic binders and organic certification with State(CDFA) and certifying agency called OrganicCertifiers. We have an annual renewal that has to be done in April and May for both."
"Currently on the farm we have somewhere around 3,000 selections of around 700 species of fruiting plants, so it takes 7-9 hours to go and verify every single species and variety across the farm."
"Of all the fruits, one is far more important than everything else, and that’s cherries. We try and grow the earliest cherries in North America."
"I was a recipient of Orange County and CrFG Scholarships to help pay for my time as an exchange student in China. The funds really helped me to go out and explore Asia and more of the world. I have been a member on and off of CRFG since 1999, and attended my first festival of fruit at Cal Poly Pomona in 2003 where I would graduate from in 2014 with BS in Plant Science, Chinese language and culture, plus Minor in agronomy."
"I’ve traveled to 103 counties and am crazy about fruit, I study foreign languages to find them."
You can find Steve at the following places:
IG: @murraystevena2
Website: murrayfamilyfarms.org
FB: @steven.murray.127