Fruit Tree of the Day: Loquat
11
I don’t want to stay up until 12 tonight. Just pretend I did.
Monday’s fruit tree is the Loquat. It tastes like a sweet apricot, with hints of its own thing. If they aren’t fully ripe, they taste pretty much just like apricots. Like lychees, it’s delicious goodness that ends too soon. The fruits are ready to eat in May… and that’s it. 
These are considered a delicacy in Japan, with people giving honey-coated loquats as gifts.
Best of all, these trees don’t really require any maintenance. My neighbors have a tree that was a weed, and they did nothing to care for it. Now its 30 feet tall and gives lots of fruit every year… which they never thought to try because it was a weed. Hopefully, since I told them it was something good when I asked to pick it, they now enjoy it too.
I don’t really know where you’d look to find these fruits to try some yourself. I’ve never seen it in any store. Luckily, since it tastes so similar to an apricot, you have a pretty good idea of what it tastes like.
- 7 comments, 9 replies
- Comment
I’ve actually seen them in stores. But rarely.
And I loved harvesting all the loquat trees in my neighborhood when I lived in Florida. It was like I knew a secret nobody else did, and my prize was an endless supply of delicious loquats!
@GemAdele I knew of a few trees in Florida growing up. They were awesome to eat right off the tree.
OWLS! TOWELS! JOWLS! AWESOME!
How is this related to the kumquat? Because they are not only tasty, but hurt like hell when you throw them at your brother.
@2many2no Or sister, or friends.
@2many2no Not at all related to kumquats. Kumquats are citrus, and loquats are medlar. They are both from China though, so my guess is “quat” means something in Chinese.
@2many2no So they hurt like hell not because your brother was hit by one but because of what your brother does to you after you throw one at him? (grin).
We used to throw crab apples like snowballs. They hurt when you were hit by one. Especially ones that wasn’t over ripe because then it was hard as a rock.
@Kidsandliz Oh, there were plenty of kumquats so that they were going in both directions. I mean, back in the day, we didn’t have laser tag, we just made up our own game. And yeah, crab apples work really well too.
We had these growing up in Louisiana, too. We called them Japanese plum trees. Or are Loquats different? They have a somewhat large seed (or two halves if I remember), dark brown, like an avocado stone, and the fruit is like a sweet pear-like apricot. If you peeled the skin, you didn’t have to wash them. Delicious. Good times.
Don’t think they are related to kumquats, which are citris. These are not citrus trees.
@mike808 Yep, Japanese plum is just another name for loquats. The real question is why they called it Japanese plum instead of Japanese apricot…
@mike808 @Weboh Plums and apricots are actually pretty closely related, there are a whole range of species, and you see pluots and apriums a lot more now in stores, which are crosses. I’m sure they were comparing it to a plum that tasted more like an apricot. There’s actually a plum species called Japanese plum that’s thought to be more closely related to to apricots than plums.
These are all over South Texas, but people pretty much ignore them. They ripen in late March/early April around here. There’s about 6 of them at work, and when they are in season, I’ll go harvest a bag of them and make jam. It’s a lot of work deseeding them, but the result tastes like fruity honey. At first, I peeled the skin, but that was waaay to much work. Now I just use an immersion blender to puree the fruit and skins while it’s cooking in the saucepan.
Don’t eat the seeds, by the way. I read somewhere that they have cyanide or something related in them.
@Blahbbs I thought a tree starts growing inside you and bursts out of your abdomen like the alien from the movies of the same name.
Is there any point in protecting the gene pool from people that eat random stuff and then think about whether it is safe or not afterwards?
Let them explore and get the full Darwinian thrill of adding to our collective body of knowledge of “Things that kill you if you eat them” through the scientific method of testing their hypothesis.
I have one and I’m in California! Deer love them. They are messy! Leaves fall all year, but it’s a great shade tree and fruit is yummy.
We have one on our street…unguarded for some neighborly harvesting! They are delicious.