The Grauer Garden Is Busy During The Summer!

Thanks to the efforts of our wonderful Grauer Garden Coordinators, Stephanie Murphy and Sally Grauer, the Grauer Garden continues to be productive during the summer months. Our sustainable campus garden produces vegetables, herbs, and flowers year-round, along with fruit from our orchard of fruit trees planted around the campus.

Stephanie and Sally recently harvested the last of the apriums, which they shared with Grauer Parents and staff members. The Grauer School is fortunate to have a Cot-N-Candy Aprium tree in our Orchard. Apriums are a hybrid of an apricot and a plum (75% apricot and 25% plum) and are delicious. Horticulturist Luther Burbank created the first apricot-plum hybrid in the late 1800's, but the aprium (and pluot) were created and popularized by Floyd Zaiger, a well-renowned breeder and the founder of Zaiger’s Genetics. Zaiger developed the aprium and pluot hybrids in the late 20th century and then developed over 20 different breeds of apricot-plum hybrids. The fruit hybrid is made by hand crossing pollen from the blooms of both trees over many years.

Upcoming summer produce offerings from the Grauer Garden will include garlic, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, zucchini, tomatillos and peaches. It takes a community to create, sustain, and harvest this beautiful and productive campus garden!