sparrows and loquats

[asakiyume]

It's cold today; the heater is chugging along, making my living space warm, and I feel so grateful. Outside, in the nearby city, the sparrows by the bus station are fluffed up like little feathered pokéballs. They're very tame; people feed them crumbs and things, either by accident or on purpose.

Around here people say "on accident," to go with "on purpose." How about the other way? By accident or by purpose.

Safe from the cold are these loquat trees I grew from seeds that 88greenthumb sent me. I've never eaten the fruit of the loquat--have any of you?





Their leaves are generously large and a rich green color, and apparently you can make a tea out of them, but I won't, because my trees are up against enough difficulties, growing in pots and kept indoors for half the year, without having their leaves plucked.

In China, and then by extension in Japan, the tree is called pipa (biwa in Japanese), like the instrument--maybe because the fruit look like it?

a pipa (source)

Comments

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

I grew up next to a loquat tree - that is, in a house next to house in whose yard was a loquat tree - one grown more as an ornamental than as a fruit tree, I guess, since as far as I know no-one but us kids ate the fruit. Summer days, neighbourhood of kids, plucking and eating at will the fruits warm from the tree, and admiring the big, glossy seeds. I always wanted to keep them, and make necklaces from them, but they always dried, and lost their gloss and the brown skin fell off.
More recently, a friend shared some loquat bounty from a tree-of-a-friend and I discovered that they are even better not sun-warm, but cold from the fridge (though still against the background of a warm summer's day).

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

How lovely to have grown up with a tree nearby! When you say they're even better chilled, is it just the fact of enjoying them cool on a hot day, or is the flavor somehow changed/improved by being chilled?

Apparently they're really full of pectin, too, which makes it very easy to turn them into jams and jellies.

The fading of the shining happens with horse chestnuts (conkers) too--they are **so** richly red-brown, positively polished, and then they lose that shine. So they'd be perfect for fairy jewelry, I guess--beautiful until it fades.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

I think it was probably that I enjoyed the cold sweetness of them - sunwarm has its own loveliness, but isn't as refreshing.
I've never come across them in jam, but I've taken careful note of the pectin tip for future reference. :)