Foraging spot
Loquat tree
In season NOW. Sweet-tart, large seeds. Very common.
Coordinates: 37.883694, -122.273071
What to do with it
- Eat fresh; spit the big seeds
- Poach into a light syrup
- Bake into a tart or crumble
Ways to keep it
- Loquat jam
- Loquat wine or liqueur (ferment)
- Light poaching syrup
- Dry
About Loquat
The loquat (Eriobotrya japonica, Chinese: 枇杷; Pinyin: pípá) is a large evergreen shrub or tree grown commercially for its orange coloured fruits. It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant. The loquat is a fruit tree in the family Rosaceae, subfamily Amygdaloideae, tribe Maleae. It is native to the cooler hill regions of south-central China. It has been introduced to regions with subtropical to mild temperate climates throughout the world. Eriobotrya japonica formerly was thought to be closely related to the genus Mespilus and is still sometimes known as the Japanese medlar, which is the name it takes in other European languages, such as níspero japonés in Spanish or nespolo giapponese in Italian. It is also known as Japanese plum and Chinese plum.
From Wikipedia.
Tree and plant locations come from Falling Fruit, a volunteer-run map of the urban harvest, used under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. This project is non-commercial. Locations are crowd-sourced and provided as-is — always confirm a plant's identity and that you're welcome to pick before foraging.
Photos and descriptions from Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons. Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors. Not affiliated with Falling Fruit, Wikimedia, or OpenStreetMap.