Loquat Bounty From The Garden

It's that time of year again. The spring harvest in our garden is just around the corner. We've planted the spring vegetable garden and it's still too early for the spring vegetable harvest, but the loquat tree in the backyard is brimming with fruit. It's going to be a bountiful year for loquats.

It's a beautiful tree. And not only is the fruit bright and colorful, it's delicious too! Juicy, sweet and tangy all at once.

The yield this year is terrific. We're experiencing an El Niño this season, so the loquat abundance might have to with the extra rain we've been receiving.

At any rate, we're going to be busy picking fruit this weekend. Besides, if we don't get the fruit off the tree, the birds and the squirrels will have a feast.

In fact, we have a resident squirrel that loves to gorge himself on the loquats every year. He stuffs himself and can barely hold himself up in the tree. And mister squirrel also likes to tell a few other squirrels in the area. Apparently, he doesn't mind sharing his loquat find with the neighborhood.

We were able to fill a bowl with loquats for the table a few weeks ago with the early ripening fruit. The loquat fruit makes a great snack, and they can be a little addicting. It's hard to eat just one. I usually put away 5 or 6 at a time once I get started.

Now the dilemma, what to do with all these loquats. The obvious answer is loquat jam. We'll be making a batch of loquat jam this year, and I'll put up some pictures when we knock that out.

I'm also on the hunt for some new loquat recipes to try. I found this pork tenderloin with strawberry loquat sauce, now that sounds perfect. And the timing is perfect, we're just entering strawberry season here in Southern California as well. Going to definitely give that one a try.

I also have a few ideas of my own for some loquat recipe experiments. I'm going to be playing around with a loquat salsa. And I'm thinking the tangy sweet pear-like texture of the fruit will be perfect for a loquat jam reduction over foie gras. My wife loves foie gras, so I'm pretty sure she'll back me up on the loquat reduction experiment.

So stay tuned for a few loquat cooking installments coming this way.