My loquat trees are full of ripe fruit today. Loquat fruits at the beginning of spring in that intermediate time where there is not much around. The citric trees are ending the production, but the summer fruit trees are just starting to flower.
It's a perfect tree for cities and common spaces if we grow the idea of edible landscaping in urban settings. It's a middle size tree, it's clean (the fruit doesn't fall), it's rarely commercially available (on the West at least) because it has a very short shelf life, so it's not competition for businesses.
It does attract wild life, birds love it.
The fruit is sweet and a bit acid, more acid than sweet when it's pale yellow and sweeter than acid when it ripens all the way into deep orange. It has tons of iron, so it's one of those fruits that have to be eaten or processed immediately because it becomes brown fast--like apples used to be in the good old days when you cut them open.
I use my loquats for many preparations.
From the meat (besides eating them as is), I make jam and preserves in syrup on the sweet side and a pesto (together with nasturtium leaves and garlic) on the salty side. From the skin of the fruit I make vinegar, and from the seed I make "cherry" liquor.
The young leaves are also edible, but like they have a soft "hair" in this stage I don't usually use them. Removing it takes a lil bit of work. I do take one from time to time to add to my herbal teas.
It's a very easy tree to propagate, at least my seeds sprout like crazy. Last year I gave away around 50 plants that appeared from discarded seeds and I keep finding new ones.
Some science: Biological Activities of Extracts from Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.): A Review
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27929430
"Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.) is a subtropical fruit tree with high medicinal value native to China. Different organs of loquat have been used historically as folk medicines and this has been recorded in Chinese history for thousands of years. Research shows that loquat extracts contain many antioxidants, and different extracts exhibit bioactivity capable of counteracting inflammation, diabetes, cancer, bacterial infection, aging, pain, allergy and other health issues. Bioactive compounds such as phenolics and terpenoids have been isolated and characterized to provide a better understanding of the chemical mechanisms underlying the biological activities of loquat extracts. "
Img: one of my trees.
