Posted on 05/28/2021 7:58:19 AM PDT by mylife
los Angeles does, contrary to what some believe, have seasons; they just aren’t the same as those in the Northeast or Midwest. There isn’t really a fall or a winter. Instead, there’s Fire Season, Rainy Three Weeks, and June Gloom, among others. But there’s another way to measure the passage of time: by fruit. We’re not talking about what’s in the farmer’s markets, but what’s growing on the streets, in parking lots, in plots of land that may or may not belong to anyone.
Los Angeles, especially the hotter, drier East Side, is not home to an unusually large number of native edible plants, but it is home to an absolutely berserk amount of non-native fruit trees, planted both intentionally and accidentally. Many of these simply line neighborhood streets. Among them, especially prominent on the East Side, in now-trendy neighborhoods like Silver Lake, Echo Park, and Atwater Village, is the loquat.
The loquat—an extremely juicy, incredibly prolific, mighty delicious sweet-sour fruit, bright yellow in color, somewhere between a plum and a mango in flavor—is so common that you can hardly walk more than three or four houses in these neighborhoods without passing one. And yet it isn’t celebrated, prized, or, for the most part, eaten at all. You can tell this because if they were valued, then all those trees wouldn’t be absolutely heavy with fruit. “Nobody eats them,” says Alissa Walker, a Los Angeles–based journalist and loquat enthusiast, of the loquat trees in her neighborhood. “They just hang on the trees, and I’m like, ‘Is anyone going to eat these?’”
(Excerpt) Read more at atlasobscura.com ...
in Ohio, we got paw paws
Do you pick ‘em up and put ‘em in your pockets?................
Loquats are good. We have some in my neighborhood. I eat them, and try cultivate them.
The only problem with loquat fruit is the huge seed in the middle, which takes up a lot of the volume.
They are great! They grow on my street.
Not even th3 ho else’s eat them? Free food! They look delicious. Surprised the Muslims there aren’t gobbling them up. Around us, Muslims walk right onto people’s front yards and scoop up dropped apples, and even pick fro the trees. Got so bad one neighbor had to scream at the people to get off the lawn and threatened to call the cops. The Muslims were showing up all hours, even before dawn. It got out of hand. The thing is, the owner of the property wanted the apples for thei own canning and pies etc. The Muslims didn’t even bother to ask. The Muslims have more money than bates practical,y too, they own several gasoline/convenience stores, and a campground in the area,huge one, and are expanding with government grants.
They just felt entitled to the apples I guess, regardless of who’s property they were on
What does mu.berry taste like? Always heard about it but never tried it, sounds like it’s good
Interesting! So they’re a FL thing as well. I guess they can handle the infrequent freezing temps?
last time I was there I saw Mexicans helping themselves to oranges
“The only problem with loquat fruit is the huge seed in the middle, which takes up a lot of the volume.”
Since they are free, that’s hardly a problem.
Someone should just put up signs, “Loquats, $5, all you can eat” and the neighborhood will strip the trees bare, thinking they are “restoring social justice” by stealing them.
I'd LOVE to be able to pick some loquats! Love those things.
thats a fact!
When I lived in L.A. there was a huge avocado tree outside the 2nd story window of my work building. He would use a stick to knock the ripe ones loose and someone would catch them from below. There are always several ripe avocados lying on the ground that fell at various times. Pretty cool.
I am astonished at how much fruit is left to rot here in Phoenix. The house we just left had an orange tree in the backyard, and we ate (or gave away) our fruit in season, but there are limes and grapefruits all over. A few times my wife asked for permission to pick, and once offered a trade (oranges for grapefruit). We see a lot more wasting away.
I miss 10 for a dollar avocados
I love loquats.
We had a loquat tree in our yard in Nocal, along with an English Walnut tree, lemon tree and a persimmon tree. I HATED those sickening sweet loquats. BUT free fruit is not cool with our entitled population with burgers, etc.
We had a bunch on our tree in the backyard a few weeks ago.
Some sort of varmint ate them all.
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