My first encounter with a guava

Since moving to California my familiarity with fruits like kumquat, persimmon, pomegranate, papaya and mango has grown.  I love kumquats, persimmon and pomegranates and am on friendly terms with all the others.  I will never forget the morning I set the breakfast table with homemade bread, fresh strawberries, blueberries, melon and pineapple.  Micah (4 or 5 at the time) came to the table, looked around and asked, "Where's the mango?"  Even a grandmother has to roll her eyes once in a while.  

Saturday a friend gave me some guavas from her tree.  I had to ask her how to eat it, never having seen a guava in my life.  So today I gave it a try.  Hmmmm.  Let's just say I won't be rushing out to buy a guava tree anytime soon.  But it was definitely interesting.  Maybe in a smoothie?  I even resorted to YouTube for How to eat a guava (always ready to believe I'm doing something wrong here) but even that didn't make a convert out of me.  Those seeds are surely high in fiber but kind of a hurdle to the palate.  Maybe it's an acquired taste?  

Aren't these persimmons lovely?  Friend Candice blessed me with them.  Yum.

In Catherine Marshall's book Christy I believe there is a story about how finding a persimmon tree with fruit on it saved a mountain family from starvation.  They were able to harvest and sell the fruit at premium price and buy what they needed to get through the winter.  That gave me a kindly feeling toward persimmons even though I had no idea what a persimmon was when I read the book eons ago.  I'll have to see if I can find that book and story.  Amazing how a good story can stay with you through the decades.  Hmmmm...seems like no matter what topic I start thinking about it always ends up back at a book.