Beautiful unfortunately named ‘Kaki’ fruit
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare
I have spoken before about the very different varieties of fruit and vegetables available here in France then in the UK (and also of the ones which are readily available in the UK that I cannot find at all – purple tender stalk broccoli for one – and I have only really had easy access to parsnips in the last two years) I have also spoken about the seasonal cycle which fruit and veg follow here also.
I just finished mourning the end of the fig season (see my post ‘I do give a fig’), to await with eager anticipation the arrival of ‘Kaki’ fruit. What! I hear you all declare – I agree, not the most enticing of names, but a truly wonderful discovery.
Kaki fruit in the local supermarket, but the best are those that you buy from the barrow boys who stand outside the stations
These gorgeous orange/yellow giant rosehips are both pretty on the outside and in, with a lovely sun like pattern on the inside that reminds me of a firework exploding in the sky.
They taste somewhere between a peach and a pear and I use them in fruit salads, zap them, if they are a little over ripe, with crème fraiche to make a delicious mousse, and caramelise with butter.
I would call them ‘sunshine’ fruit as I think that this is a much more attractive name and suits them much better…..but as the man said – ‘what’s in a name’………
Speaking of sunshine, or ‘Sunrise and Sunset’, to form another tenuous link with a title, our apartment is in a lovely 1930’s building sandwiched between the lovely river Marne and the Bois de Vincennes.
Granted there are other, more modern, less attractive apartment buildings masking some of the view of the river at the back, and the very convenient, but not very glamourous station right in front. But when I am sitting on my sofa, or at my dining table then all I can see are trees and sky (or if lying on my bed, just sky!)
View from my lounge window (when sitting)
It is the sky that is the icing on the cake for me living here (apart from the centre of Paris being 20 minutes away by a direct train from the said station!)
I regularly wake to a bedroom bathed in coral as the sun rises in the east, and each evening I have the ‘best seats in the house’ to watch the ever changing sky as she sets again in the west. I have never seen such a dazzling display of light and colour, especially when there are moody clouds hovering over the treetops.
‘Beautiful dawn, light up the sky for me, there is nothing in the world, I’d rather wake up and see’
‘Lever du Soleil’ Sun coming up behind the geraniums on my bedroom balcony
It is breath-taking, and I frequently abandon my dinner or a program on the television and click away with my camera capturing image after image – I have literally hundreds of them – but won’t subject you to them all……..
These two photos were taken about 90 seconds apart from the same position
As I am one of the least technical people in the world, none of these photos have been ‘photoshopped’ and what you get is what I see.
Gathering storm
Silver linings
A Taste of two Cities 
What stunning photographs …. just exquisite! Now – these Kaki fruit! I’m not sure if they have reached Cantal but I’m certainly going to be hunting them down like a truffle piglet because you make them so enticing I am now sitting obsessing about trying one. Incidentally – parsnips are still the very devil to find here – I keep telling the ladies on the market that I really will buy them EVERY week if they have them and they look at me with vague distrust …. hey ho the upsided outweight scanty parsnips 😀
Ha ha ha – seriously when I first came here, I used to ask for them in the local market every week to no avail, then eventually I was offered some withered offerings,which I reluctantly bought.
But the next week I was summoned behind the stall and a curtain was pulled back under the counter to reveal a fine crop of plump butter coloured parsnips – it was like being in an episode of Allo Allo!
Now I can buy them at Monoprix – but each time I take them through the checkout the cashier asks me what I am going to do with them – I have some now that I am going to roast with carrots, potatoes and rosemary and make some carrot and parsnip soup for when I come home at lunchtime tomorrow and Tuesday in between jobs.
Kaki fruit smell devine also – not sure where they originate from – maybe the Antibes, will find out
The photos are amazing! wow what beauty and lovely shots! Thanks so much for sharing this! I have never heard of this fruit! You introduce us to such interesting and new things as well as old things with brilliant colors! I love these posts!
Ah, I am so glad you like them Lynz – wait til you see what I woke up to this morning, what can only be described as a blood red sky, I was almost late for work clicking away!
The Kaki’s are scrumptious : )
Beautiful sky photos!
Thank you Tanja – it really is a beautiful sky, blows me away