Jon Verdick
Jon grew up with all sorts of edibles: fruits, nuts, and vegetables, really from birth. He doesn't ever remember not being in the garden.
The love of fresh, tree-ripe fruit has been a life-long pursuit. Jon joined California Rare Fruit Growers (http://www.crfg.org) about 30 years ago with 2 goals:
finding Cherimoyas and Passion Fruit. That led to Sugar Cane, Bananas, Sapotes, Che, Pitangas, and a whole world of other fruits;  oh, and Figs.
When Jon was a child, figs were for Newtons only, but, as a CRFG member, owning a tree became an obligation (everyone else had them).
So, he acquired a couple,  and wanted just a couple more good ones. Long story, short, the hunt for a couple great varieties turned into a collection of about 1000
varieties.  All of the information he collected in an attempt to understand his figs eventually led to a website (why not share: http://figs4fun.com), taking tens of
thousands of pictures, visiting the USDA collection at UC Davis, trading cuttings across the country, and making a lot of great fig friends.
Jon still grows all the other stuff, including 100 varieties of bananas, but figs have truly been the most fun of all.
“Figs”
The latest endeavor is the Figs 4 Fun Foundation (http://figs4fun.org/)
created to safeguard his existing collection and plant it out in a Preservation Orchard for future generations.