Members of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission’s study tour stand in front of HortResearch Havelock North (from left): Chuck Peters, Ray Schmitten, Kyle Mathison (kneeling), Dain Craver, Bryce Molesworth, Tom Butler, Jim McFerson, Jim Koempel, Gum trees—the ever-present reminders of what the Australians call “the bush,” and the first notable indication of a land very distant and very different from the familiar desert steppe sagebrush of Washington State. What urged me and nine tree fruit colleagues to venture over the Pacific Ocean, across the dateline, and south of the equator to down under? It was the lure of genes […]