David Karp

David Karp (born 1958) is an active pomologist, traveler and writer, who calls himself a Fruit detective.

Life David is the son of Harvey Karp, a businessman, whose East Hampton home was reputed to be a palace.

After graduation, he started a career in risk arbitrage and option trading on Wall Street, has worked for gourmet specialty store Citarella and acted as a provisioner for Dean & DeLuca. After recovering from a serious drug addiction, he changed course and began a new career as a freelance fruit writer.

Karp moved to California in 1999. He has been a guest on the Saturday morning food show on radio station KCRW.

When the threat of citrus greening first appeared in the U.S., Karp wrote in the New York Times to alert the public of the disease's risks.

Projects

Citrus Documentation at CVC Karp is an associate in the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of California, Riverside, working to photograph and document the more than 1,000 varieties grown at the Citrus Variety Collection of the University of California. Displayed on the CVC website, these photos are accessible to researchers throughout the world.

Citrus germplasm in China He helped co-found the Chinese Citrus Germplasm Repository in Jiangshui (about 50 miles from Kunming), province of Yunnan.

Unforbidden Fruit Karp became involved as a researcher in a joint project between the University of California, Riverside and the USDA to prevent smuggling of fruit into California that may harbor insects that could threaten the state's fruit industry. The project—Unforbidden Fruits: Preventing Citrus Smuggling by Introducing Varieties Culturally Significant to Ethnic Communities—focuses on making disease-free germplasm of citrus and non-citrus fruit available to Californian nurseries and tree farmers, to replace the illicit demand.

Fruits of interest

Mangosteen Karp has written several articles on the availability of the mangosteen in the United States, due to fears they harbor the Asian fruit fly. He wrote articles in the New York Times announcing the renewed U.S. law on July 23, 2007, when irradiated imports from Thailand were allowed upon USDA approval, and one following its trade at the local markets.

Greengage plum David believes the greengage plum is the most delicious fruit on the world,