On Saturday we hit the road for the Napa Valley Wine and Art festival - an annual street block-off featuring local artisans, wineries, and food vendors. It was a delightful experience and I picked up some gifts as well as some unique items for our house. While we were eating I noticed this store and just had to take a picture. There really are no words to describe my reaction, so I’ll let the name of the place suffice.

But this story is not about one store with everything that a good country boy needs, but about what happened after we left the festival.

We were walking back to the Jeep when we came across a tree that none of us had ever seen before. It was completely covered in fruits that were in various stages of ripening, from yellow/green to bright red. Here is an image from Wikimedia commons:

The fruits were very interesting to touch – covered with rough “bumps”, but still feeling somewhat soft to the touch. It was evident that the red fruits were the ripe ones, as you could see a progression from the bright yellow through to pink to bright then deep red.

David picked one from the tree and squeezed it until we could see the insides. It was a mealy type of fruit, with many seeds inside. Without really considering any repercussions I said, “I’ll try it”, grabbed the fruit, and popped it into my mouth. It was pretty good. It had a very smooth taste – a light taste, and did have a mealy but pleasant texture.

My parents and David were shocked. They couldn’t believe that I would actually eat a random fruit without knowing what it was. I didn’t really get the concern – it was very evident that this was a fruit tree and I reasoned that they wouldn’t have planted a fruit tree in a park that was poisonous. People bring their children to the area and you know children always put bright red fruits in their mouths. I guess I regressed to childhood suddenly and my parents did take the opportunity to plot my demise for eating a possibly poisonous fruit.

Minutes passed and my throat didn’t close up…I was still breathing…no stomach pains…all was well. Although I do consider myself to be food intolerant, I have a relatively good ability to transmute odd edible items without adverse reaction. I guess it’s sort of like transmuting the water of life and becoming a Reverend Mother. If you get this reference then you’re one of the cool people.

Anyway…the day went on and I didn’t think anything of it. But the subject came up today while enjoying a BBQ dinner with the parents, and so I got on my phone and googled “fruit tree red rough”. I sorted through some pages and at first we thought it was lychee, but after looking at the image results I discovered that the fruits are actually from the Strawberry Tree.

These delicious red, rough, mealy fruits are quite common on California and the west coast, and are often used in borders because they remain green and the fruits are so decorative. I plan to get some seeds and see if we can grow a few of our own. I bet they would also make a delicious liquor.

So here’s a lesson to you all – red fruits are safe. Usually.

*cough*

*gasp*