Ya Big Fruit!

I was exploring my Latino heritage in Echo Park when Steve, who is very patient with his favorite gringo going on such an exploration, discovered something startling and yet exciting! There is a whole group dedicated to the discovery of fruta growing on public spaces in Echo Park. In fact it's such a big deal that it was written about on Daily Candy, which is a website dedicated to new stores, restaurtants, events, spas, and shopping for handbags (among other things).

Anyway, Fallen Fruit was set up by these people who think that if there is an avocado tree growing in a front yard and the fruit is ripe, you have every right to pick it and make a tasty bowl of guac. So they mapped various areas in LA where fruit trees can be found in public spaces and Steve found this map at Chango, our lovely local coffee house.
Guess what... WE'RE ON THE MAP! Oh yes, the owners of Chango marked their location and Steve just casually examined the map and came to our street, where low and behold he found a dot marking the loquat tree in our front yard. He called me over, we confirmed our neighbors had lemons in their front yards and realized that yes, indeed, the Princess Cupcake House is famous.

I love fame. Even when it comes in the form of fruit.

Right now the tree is just loaded with dead things so we need to trim and prune, but by next summer we could have a gaggle of guys and gals picking juicy goodness in our front yard (and thus alleviating us from the chore of pruning in the fall). Well, okay, on second thought that doesn't sound appealing. Perhaps I'll learn to can fruit or make jame and hand it out at Chango to our neighbors so that they love us. We'll be known as the fruity fags or something. Or the loquat lovers. Or maybe I can make loquat liquor. I know people who have made booze before, I could do this! And I could sell it to the neighborhood kids and earn some extra dinero. And as we all know, dinero es muy importante when you own a home and would love a trip to Vegas.

Then again, it is illegal to sell booze to minors; not that they don't necessarily drink it, it's just bad for me to sell it. I do have morals... they're somewhere around here in one of the boxes we haven't unpacked yet. Maybe I'll just trade our loquats for some hearty avocados because the ones hanging over our backyard fence are from an unhealthy tree. We both love guac, as do our friends, and our friends are old enough to drink. Eh, whatever. I'll figure it out later. Right after I get around to pruning that tree.