why I love loquats

Hello, reader.  How’s March shenanigans?  My spiritual, musical, artist gardening friend asked me why I love loquats.  I txted her back too many times.

So I though– There’s a lot of emotions there!  I’ll write about why loquats are sacred to me.

why I love loquats

Did you ever eat a loquat?  They have a lovely flavor.  Sweet, subtle.

Those big, dark, slick seeds are wonderful.  Yes, there’s more seed than fruit.  But the seeds feel delightfully slippery in my mouth.

The fruits feel gentle–they don’t burn my skin.  (Many fruits burn my mouth–pineapple is the worst.)

The fruits are my favorite color: that warm orange.  I could stare at that color all day.  Ah–soul nourishing.

The dark green furrowed leaves are so pretty.  Like a dinosaur.  I enjoy their stiffness.

At the ashram I spent eight years at near Sacramento, loquat is the first fruit of the year.  It’s special how it’s ahead of the other fruits.  Speedy darling.

nostalgia

There was the time at the beginning of our relationship that Ming and I harvested a fuckton of loquats from the backyard of the house he’d just moved out of.  We washed them, took out the seeds, and boiled them down, strained the resultant slurry, added sugar, and had loquat syrup.

Wow– it was delicious.  Fruity yet sort of carmel-y.  Loquat syrup is a special substance I have never seen at a store.  We used it on cornmeal pancakes initially– a shared meal we made for the people we were staying with, while we were briefly homeless 12 years ago.

Then loquat syrup was good on vanilla ice cream.  A container of it sat in our fridge in Sacramento for a long time.

The syrup making was time consuming, and our humble pancake dinner was late.  But I have a good feeling about Ming helping me chase my dreams.  Also I love to use a ton of fruit that would have gone to waste otherwise.

baby trees

Maybe a year ago, I noticed that loquat tree growing in front of Ta Ra Rin in Eugene and was like–what?  Is that a loquat tree?  How can they grow this far north?  I think of them as mostly so-cal and the middle of California where I’m from.  I think of them as very Santa Barbara.

So then I googled about and went on that quest to Corvallis to find the huge loquat trees growing there.  I wanted to find a seed and try growing a sapling.  We found the huge trees, but no seeds, though we searched in the dirt.

Then my ex-housemate gave me two loquat seeds he picked up when he was visiting his homeland in Los Angeles.  I soaked them in water for a while, then planted them in pots, and I was sad when they didn’t sprout.  I gave up on them but left them in their window spot in the craft room.

Then I was shocked when they grew.  They are cute tiny trees these days.  I’m curious to see how they’ll change this spring and summer.

Portland

Recently Ming and I and our homegirl Bag went to Portland.  At the Chinese garden, I found the loquat tree in a corner and spent a moment with it.  Not quite praying, I enjoyed its charm.  Bag took this picture.

I hope to return to witness the fruits, if any.

Long ago when I was in grad school, there was a loquat tree outside my apartment at UC Irvine.  One day some bees swarmed into it.  I posted a little about the memory in 2008.

There are associations with my best friend also.  She loved the fruits as a child.  I like to imagine her little self savoring them.

Those are a few of the nostalgias.  But why I love loquats is part of my present life.  They are not just past.

fruits

I hope you have the fruits you need at the proper season.  I also hope you have the diversity you need to nourish your body and soul.