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.