365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Weird Fruits
Day 349: It's weird fruit season again! I have been so preoccupied with Merry's recovery that I neglected to check on the Akebia pods to see if they were ripening. A couple of them had gone a bit too far already, and some critter had been at them, but I salvaged more than half a dozen for my personal enjoyment. There are a few more yet to come. Now when I say "personal enjoyment," I have to qualify it by explaining that Akebias are a difficult taste to acquire. For one thing, the edible portion is only a thin layer of...for want of a better word...sliminess which adheres closely to hundreds of fat, hard seeds. To eat an Akebia, you put a spoonful in your mouth, roll it around on your tongue for a bit, then spit the seeds out before swallowing. At first, I found them tasteless. Now that my palate is more educated, the slight sweetness is more apparent. The closest thing I can compare it to is unflavoured rice candy. I actually look forward to the Akebia harvest now, but I have learned not to go overboard when hand-pollinating the vines. A dozen or a dozen and a half is plenty for a season. Forty is definitely overkill.
Labels:
Akebia fruits,
gardening
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