mysterious neighborhood fruit tree

[nibot]

On a bike ride today I found this loquat tree (identified after-the-fact via wikipedia) near the public library. There's a big park there with soccer fields and some gardens. I saw that this tree had attracted a lot of interest from a hispanic family, so I wandered over. They were picking the fruit and eating it, and offered me one of them. It was good: sweet and a bit tart.

EDIT: Now I am noticing these trees all over town!

Comments

[aepfelx.livejournal.com]

Mmm, loquat. Well, if the ones you tried were anything like those shown, these are way under-ripe (maybe 3-4 weeks short of optimal). In Berkeley, at least, most of the random street-accessible loquat trees (which I made a habit of scavenging from annually =)) seemed to peak at the end of may/early June, though it should indeed still taste a tiny bit tart when ripe.

[rudybang.livejournal.com]

I had a loquat tree in my front yard! We called them Chinese plums and as a kid in TX I would spend the day up in the tree spying down on the lawn and spitting seeds at passersby. Defintely unripe, should be golden, fuzzy, more sweet than tart, but with some tartness. Mmm, I can feel the fuzz on my lips just thinking about it.