When life gives you loquats....

When we rented our duplex, we knew it was almost perfect. The only thing that could have made it better would have been a massive orange tree in the back yard. Home-grown california oranges are absolutely amazing, tender, sweet, tart, and soo juicy. Alas, no citrus to be found.

However, about two months ago, one of the trees in our front yard started flowering. Flowers were followed by little fuzzy buds, which were followed by small green fruits, which have now turned into fuzzy orange fruits about the size of a kiwi. We didn't pay too much attention to the tree - I had never seen any fruits like these in the grocery or even a farmer's market, so I figured it was either inedible or not too tasty. But a couple days ago, a young guy knocked at our door and asked whether he could pick some of them. The tree is enormous, so of course we said yes - we asked what they were but he only knew the word for them in farsi. He did show us how to eat them - you peel the skin off and eat around the four big nut-like seeds in the middle. Delicious!! If we had to compare the flavor we would probably describe it as peach-like, but a little milder, juicier, and sweet as candy. Banjo even likes them! We looked it up on wikipedia and discovered that it is a loquat tree.

So now we're loquat-eating fools! Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, they go with everything! We've seen 4-5 people picking them off the tree, too - some may be relatives of that first guy and some may just be loquat-loving passers by. I saw a squirrel running across the lawn with a ripe loquat in his mouth this morning, too. At any rate, the word has spread, and we may soon have to get out a ladder to get the higher, less accessible ones. Maybe we'll even take advantage of this bounty and make some loquat tarts, or jams, or loquat wine! If you've got a birthday coming up, watch out...