The Home Page | Bunnies, Poppies, and Pitangas, oh my

Bunnies, Poppies, and Pitangas, Oh My

Credit: Sarah Sinclair

This edition of The Home Page was originally emailed to subscribers on November 17, 2024. To receive Sarah Sinclair’s real estate newsletter in your inbox each Sunday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

I got out of the office to visit a sweet open house in my neighborhood on a brisk and beautiful Thursday morning this week. Brooke Ebner welcomed me to the Easter Team’s newest listing: a cute townhouse at 407 West Pedregosa Street, #1. Three bedrooms upstairs, plus a stylish, open kitchen and living room and outdoor patio downstairs make for a spacious setup in a compact space. You’ve heard me rave about downtown living: being able to walk to the Arlington Theatre (like I did on Wednesday to see Anne Lamott) or over to Crushcakes on a whim (like we did last Sunday for a delicious lunch). This home offers that same convenience from a coveted location on a quiet little cul-de-sac. It’s open from 1-4 p.m. today if you’d like to take a look for yourself.

Realtor Kevin Hall was in Charleston this week for a gathering of Compass real estate agents from around the country. In addition to the educational aspects of the trip, Kevin got out and enjoyed the city. I suggested a stop at my favorite Charleston coffee shop, Bad Bunnies. I stopped by for a latte when I visited in July, thanks to a tip from my friend Starshine, whose husband, John, designed the Bad Bunnies font. All of us said hi to the owners, Rick and Carol, who must think they’re single-handedly experiencing a Santa Barbara invasion. Here they are with Kevin, who is so fashionable that his glasses match the coffee.

It was cloudy every day last week when I visited my kids in Chicago. I wasn’t expecting much fall color in the Midwest, so the bright leaves overhead and underfoot were a delightful antidote to the lack of sun. Back home, my favorite leaves of late are on my passionfruit vine. I introduced you to my vine, lovingly named Poppy, here a few months ago.

Poppy just passed her three-month mark, and her spreading arms are now racing for the sky.

Here she is with Scout — whose quizzical countenance asks why I’m taking a photo of anything other than her. I’m watering, fertilizing, and talking sweetly to Poppy, hopeful that she will keep flourishing through her next season.

Here’s a tale of more exotic fruits, and their “rare fruit wizard” who needs to find a new home. Kevin Reimer is a local zone 9b fruit tree specialist whose services include grafting, pruning, fruit selection and soil nutrition to help others’ edible landscapes. Kevin’s own exotic fruit trees bear delights like the pitanga, shown here.

My colleague Matt Kettmann shared Kevin’s search for new space in his Full Belly Files newsletter this week. Let’s see if the collective intelligence of this audience might help Kevin’s search, and give this tale a happy ending. If you haven’t heard it already, here’s the story, as told by Matt:

This past summer, I drove up to the top of San Marcos Pass to taste fruits that I didn’t know existed, identified by combinations of letters just as exotic as their shapes and flavors — itangatuba, guabiju, and guazumifolia, to name a few.

This past Tuesday, I went back to try one specific fruit that grows right on the trunk of its tree: the jabuticaba, a dark purple, nearly black orb, the near-perfectly circular size of a massive grape. Wrapped in a tannic, lightly tart, and somewhat floral skin, the sweet, juicy, slightly tropical interior flesh surrounds a stubbornly gelatinous seed covering. Taken all at once — the bark-clinging balls; the complex pairing of sweet and sour and floral; the balancing act of varying textures — the jabuticaba (or jaboticaba, if you please) just may be the most interesting fruit I’ve ever tasted.

But Tuesday’s mission to see Santa Barbara’s rare fruit tree man Kevin Reimer — who I wrote about here, and here, and even mentioned here — wasn’t all about tasty things. As we wandered through the maze of trees sampling other ripe species, including his beloved cherry of the Rio Grande, Kevin told me that he was getting the boot from the rented home whose yard he’s cultivated for the past 10 years. The second-generation owner is buying a home elsewhere, and he’s now scrambling to find a place for himself, for his girlfriend who is a nurse, and for their hillside-worth of rare fruit trees that must be the most interesting edible garden in town.

Kevin did put an offer in on the property where he lives, but what he can afford is a bit short of the asking price. Being acutely aware of the mountaintop property’s existing concerns and future challenges, he’s cautious to pay too much, knowing the work that’s likely to be needed down the road. And committing to live even longer in a high fire zone atop the region’s most dangerous road is enough to give everyone pause.

I asked him if I could write about his plight and, given that he hasn’t found the right option yet, Kevin obliged. He needs a place with ample land, but also a solid flow of well water, and it has to be temperate enough to keep the plants alive. The Santa Ynez Valley, for instance, with its frequent winter frosts, won’t work.

He’s had some potential opportunities arise with fruit-interested property owners in Hollister Ranch and Hope Ranch, and had near misses on Mountain Road and Mission Canyon. It’s still possible one of those may work out. The ideal situation would be a landowner seeking to use Kevin’s services on their own fruit trees, or perhaps wanting to start a fascinating orchard of their own, whether that’s coffee trees or sapote, guava or fig. (We tasted a bunch of the latter fruit on Tuesday, and they were wildly distinct and delicious.)

Given how many large properties exist on the South Coast, it doesn’t seem impossible that a little word-of-mouth magic might help find a home for this rare fruit wizard. Perhaps that will be at your friend’s mountain pad that needs some TLC, or just in one of those pool homes behind a Montecito mansion that wouldn’t mind a steadier presence on the property — and cool plants, of course.

In the meantime, Reimer is also recovering from breaking his foot. I guessed that was due to downhill skateboarding, the sport in which he was a world champion and what initially led him to the top of the mountains. But it was just a freak accident that occurred while down the outside steps of his current home.

That happened right after my September article came out, which had led to a number of calls for his services that he had to cancel or reschedule because he couldn’t walk. Clearly, it hasn’t been the easiest few months since I met Kevin, but maybe we can do our part to make sure that Santa Barbara’s rare fruit man keeps up his sweet work.

If you can help, contact Kevin Reimer via the email, phone, or form listed on his website.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we help Kevin and his trees find a new location? I imagine any leads that “bear fruit” might see a finders fee in jabuticaba or pitanga. Betcha that would be a first!

If you haven’t picked up this week’s issue yet, here’s your digital copy: news, arts, entertainment and more on the front cover, plus a plethora of homes to admire and visit on the back cover, including this gorgeous Mesa listing by the Richardson Team. However you spend it, enjoy your Sunday!