Yesterday I was pedaling home from somewhere. When I was within a couple of blocks of home, I happened to look down and see a telltale small, orange-yellow oval shape on the pavement. A hallmark of April in central Texas, those little squashed ovals. About the size of a huge olive or a little lime. I screeched my bike to a halt and looked all around me for the mothership. In a few seconds I found it: A loquat tree, with nearly-ripe-looking fruit hanging over the sidewalk.

“Loquaaaaaaaaaaaats!” I hollered, as I usually do when I spot the tasty, prolific globes. And walked over to sample them. As I’d suspected, they’re not quite ripe, but they’re only about a week away, and I’ve got my eye on that tree. Later, not far away, I found another specimen, whose fruits were a bit farther along. (Microclimate variations are a boon in terms of staggering ripening times, which allows us grazers an extended period to enjoy a given fruit.)

Then this morning on the way to the coffee shop RIGHT IN FRONT OF WHERE I LIVE, I noticed for the first time a loquat tree growing discreetly beyond the field of vision of the typical pedestrian locomoting intently down the sidewalk. And THAT tree was festooned with super-big, super-ripe loquats!

Loquaaaaaaaaaaaats! I brake for them. Look for them in your creator’s garden (I’ve never seen them in your grocer’s freezer).

In Florida, where I spend a lot of time delivering the Avatar Course, loquats ripen around late February through March.

A couple of years ago in another neighborhood here in South Austin, I spotted a huge loquat tree. Since none of the fruit was hanging over the public right-of-way, I went and knocked on the homeowner’s door for permission to pick some. “Sure, take them all!” he said, apparently indifferent to his juicy orange-gold riches.

So which tasty treats are ripe in your area right now? And which ones are going to be ripe before long?