I never heard of the Rare Fruit Council until a few weeks ago when my friend Lori Vinikoor told me about it. She’s the President of the Palm Beach Chapter of the RFC. Her husband Joel edits the monthly chapter newsletter. The organization meets the second Friday of each month at 7:30 P.M. at the Mounts Botanical Garden auditorium, 531 N. Military Trail, West Palm Beach, FL. 33415, where about 80 people attend each meeting.
At every meeting there is a tasting table for those present to taste rare fruit samples. Volunteer opportunities are available at many interesting and exciting events. The next General Meeting will be Feb. 12 at 7:30 PM. The Rare Fruit Council has an Annual Ice Cream Social where ice cream is made from fruit grown by members and enjoyed by all at a club event.
The next two Tropical Fruit Tree and Plant Sales will take place Saturday March 20, 2010 and Saturday July 17, 2010 from 9 AM to 2 PM at South Florida Fairgrounds Agriplex, 9067 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach.
I learned that Muriel Reiffe, one of the students in my Creative Writing Class at Kings Point has been a Rare Fruit Council member for 20 years and has nurtured more than thirty unusual fruit trees in her backyard at Coco Wood Lakes in West Delray; among them a Canistel or Egg Fruit tree; a Kumquat tree and a Blackberry Jam tree. In past years, Reiffe has served as an advisor at twice yearly rare fruit tree sales.
Muriel Reiffe is an extremely well educated woman having earned a B.A. at Hunter College, an M.A. at Columbia University and 32 credits above Masters in Business Education at Hofstra University on Long Island. She is a member of Mensa.
During her senior year at James Monroe High School in the Bronx, her idol was her shorthand teacher. Because of the teacher’s influence Reiffe excelled at shorthand. This enabled her to win a job while still in high school in the 40’s working for Ken Kling who did the “Joe & Asbestos” horse racing tip and joke feature for the Daily Mirror. Reiffe was hired to use her superior shorthand skills to copy the dialog of the Sunday and weeknight radio comedy shows such as Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly and other comedy stars of that era. She would listen to the programs, write the dialog in shorthand, then type from her notes and mail the information to Kling who lived in Florida. He would use this material to create cartoons using some of the jokes from the radio shows.
For 32 years Reiffe taught Business Education at Grace Dodge Vocational H. S. in the Bronx. Married 60 years to Sol, they have one daughter and a granddaughter. Before they retired to Florida they had a home in the Bronx since 1953 where in their small 20’X20’ backyard she grew fig, peach and persimmon trees, blueberry bushes, and grapevines. She and Sol retired to Florida in 1987 and have been busy ever since raising more fruit trees, caring for two cats and pruning in her garden to relax. Reiffe also teaches beginner and intermediate computer courses at Kings Point. She has earned a Master Gardener designation from the Rare Fruit Council by taking a course that lasted 10 weeks at the Mounts Botanical Gardens in West Palm Beach.
For further information about the Rare Fruit Council, email joelv@bellsouth.net.