A 40-year old loquat tree came with the house when we bought it in 1997. I had never heard of or seen a loquat tree. I equated it to an apricot and I thought this was a good thing since I had grown up with an apricot tree. I discovered though that there were several drawbacks to this fruit. I couldn’t pick fruit and store them for consumption at another time because the fruit would be exposed once I picked it and the fruit would become brown. For a couple of years, I would cut branches bearing the fruit and give whole branches to neighbors.
For most years, I ignored the fruit, letting the birds eat it, letting it drop and rot on the ground. I didn’t know what to do with so much fruit. It would take many hours to pick and process and over the years I’ve either been too depressed or overwhelmed with life to figure out what to do with the fruit.
In the 16 years, the tree only didn’t produce fruit in 2 of those years. Last year was a non-fruit producing year. With that break as well as a slow work schedule and 2 kids to pick fruit, I decided I would try to do something with the thousands of the orange fruit.
I began with the generic google search and found a loquat cobbler that was so good that it should have been illegal to make. I don’t know why I’m adverse to making jelly/jam, but I can’t bring myself to do that. At least not yet. So that left me with thousands of loquats and I couldn’t just make a cobbler every day. I thought that if I looked for recipes that called for apricots or peaches, I could just substitute the loquats. I thought perhaps I could look at recipes for persimmons but after I tried one, I realized that this was the wrong road to try.
Next I found a peach bread recipe that also called for a peach icing. I replaced the peaches with loquats. To make the icing, I made loquat simple syrup and had the sweetened loquat carcasses left over. I put the extra simple syrup and the loquat carcasses in jars for other cooking adventures. It was pretty good, but not as good as the cobbler.
I decided the loquat carcasses were the equivalent of jam and used it as a spread on my peanut butter sandwich. I also have taken fresh loquats and put them on my peanut butter slathered waffles. I call that “raw jam.”
The loquat simple syrup has been used for a couple of drinks. My kids mix it with club soda for an Italian soda experience. I have decided it’s best used as a mixer for a loquat mojito. Today though, I brewed chamomile tea (from raw flowers) and mixed it with the loquat simple syrup and that was very tasty and refreshing.
Another dessert I made was a loquat tart (it was supposed to be apricots) and I think I liked it more than my kids did. Lots of almonds, crunchy, sweet and juicy.
I’ve made the cobbler several times since it’s the one recipe that everyone likes the most. I decided I’d not use the recipe’s topping but use Bisquick’s shortcake recipe. I made a mistake though. Instead of using 3 tablespoons of sugar, I used a half cup. The kids decided THIS was the best recipe.
I still have thousands of loquats left on the tree. I’ve invited my neighbors through nextdoor.com to come pick some for themselves but I only got 2 people who wanted them. There is so much fruit that has dropped to the ground that there is a fermented smell under the tree. I will do my best to continue to eat the fruit and prepare them for family consumption.
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