Ever heard of a Loquat? If you live on the Gulf Coast, you’ve probably seen them around. They are everywhere you look in Fairhope. The odd little fruit appears in the spring and confuses a lot of us.
Although plentiful, we don’t use them as much as we do other native fruits. The size of a large fig, they are ripe just before the rock-star blackberries appear.
Kind of like a Kumquat, except fuzzy like a peach, the oblong fruit is valued as much if not more for its ornamental qualities as well as its tasty zest. I saw a yard yesterday with Loquat trees lining the driveway. They can grow quite large and have distinctive, long, glossy leaves, so they make a nice looking tree even when there’s no fruit.
To me, the Loquat is a pain in the neck to eat, because you have to peel each tiny one. In some Asian countries, the Loquat is known as a Japanese Plum and they are canned, like peaches, in sweet syrup.
I’ve seen Loquat jelly in specialty shops around here, but for the most part, people just pick and eat the fruit off the tree. To me, it’s a citrusy-peachy-pear sort of taste. Does that help?
