Cherry plum?

You remember this ?

One day in April, I spotted some green fruits dripping from a tree in front of our apartment. It took me a while to recognize that was the tree once bursting with white blooms in early spring, the tree that I assumed to be some kind of peach or cherry.

It was a sweet surprise to know this small tree did not only produce lovely flowers but now also yielded fruit. 

'Are they cherry? Are they edible?', I was curious, and... hopeful :D, every time I visited the tree. The fruits looked different from those cherries I bought from markets in their more oval shape and in how they hanged separately from one other, but I still wondered if they were some sister or brother of  yummy cherries :p  And according to those articles I read, most cherry varieties are edible, the question is just whether they are tart, or sweet varieties. If so, I loved to taste one of these to find out, and I felt like there was a gift waiting for me this summer, when these fruits ripened :D

And summer came...

The fruits gradually went from young green to crimson in late May, then from crimson to the color of dark wine in mid June. Succulent as they were, no one seemed to notice or bother to harvest, or maybe they just picked one to taste and left the rest intact on the tree for others to enjoy...  like I did.

"I did" - Yes, I already tasted one of them :P.

The fruits gradually went from young green to crimson in late May

Just as expected, they were sweet! The flesh was palatable and fragrant, but the skin was quite thick and rough, which did not take me long to conclude the fruit tasted like ... plum?
Hmmm. But a plum is supposed to be much larger, not this tiny.
I left the question unanswered until another fine day, after some google search, I learned something interesting.  The taste and flavor did not lie. These little fruits must be ornamental plums, or Cherry Plums :)



Now, June has faded into July.
While waiting for summer heat to disperse from our car interior, I come to see how the fruits are doing as usual, but they are not there anymore. Not on the tree, but on the ground instead, as modest and quiet as they used to be. No one harvested. It doesn't seem like anyone cares, but to me, knowing about these fruits has become a nice memory. Now every time I see a plum, I tend to admire the tiny speckles on its smooth, purple skin, and remember the speckles on those little cherry plums ...

When an expected cherry turns out to be a cherry plum, it tastes a little tart for the skin, but is still sweet and lovely. Plus, I have learned something new.
This sounds similar...
just like ... how my first year in California has turned out to be. :)

KhoaThy's Journal

"Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow 

Each day is as special as you want it to be."