Tuesday, March 06, 2012

WALKING AND EATING AND SPITTING

Yep, it's loquat (aka Japanese plum) season here in Florida. Meaning, a morning walk through my neighborhood brings free fruit for the picking.

Most folks with loquat trees think they are purely decorative and never bother eating the fruit ... which means, more loquats for me. Tastewise, they are kinda like mini-mangoes -- a peachy, juicy, sugar bomb.

But eating them requires the same technique one might apply to really soft boiled peanuts: You pop the whole thing in your mouth, chew up the goodness, then spit out the seeds and whatever's left of the skin (usually the little nub at the blossom end, which you can certainly swallow if your diet needs more roughage.)

I'm told that if you want to go to all the effort, you can make a fairly decent jam out of loquats and a passable wine (say, if you were in prison or something.) But I am content with walking and eating and spitting.

And ye shall know me by my trail of seeds ...

3 comments:

Linda Holter said...

We had loquats at our old house - may have to plant some. (or dig up some from the old house - I'm sure the buyers would appreciate the help) We loved eating them - never had the patience for jam. Good memories.

laura guitar said...

we ate these all the time as kids! and mine find it shocking that i'm willing to procure a few from a tree in the neighborhood and pop them in my mouth. they also balk at the concept of eating tangerine seeds along with the rest of the tangerine. told them i'd spit the seeds out but that's not cool in the family room. seeds and spitting - that's florida fruit happiness.

Bob Morris said...

@Laura: Tell your kids that loquat theft is not a crime, but a public service. Otherwise there were would be more rotting loquats on the grounds and more bugs and more stink and you are doing a far better thing by taking a few from your neighbor's trees.

As for citrus seeds, I swallow them, too. It's a Florida thang.