jujube fruit and random visits

Wednesday morning is usually when I expect a “random” visit from Belle and John Shisko, an older farming couple who bring me various things like kale, garlic and jalapeno peppers to sell at the store. Originally from Brooklyn, they bought 80 acres of land many years ago in Holly Ridge, about 35 miles northeast of Wilmington. They bought the land when there was nothing else around. Now their place in the world is being encroached upon by development just like every other rural paradise in America. And John will tell you about it if you’ll listen…

Sometimes the Shiskos will bring me random things to try, give my opinion on or to see if I might like to try and sell the random thing. Sometimes it is a weed such as “wild basil” or various nuts or their very own mutant sweet peppers. They also bring me flower bulbs and other things to plant in my garden at home or in the co-op garden behind the dumpsters.

Despite my best attempts at crankiness, some people can see right through it and understand that sometimes folks like me like to be engaged and sought after. I do like their visits, but sometimes what they bring is too much to handle. So I do my best to accommodate these gifts and attention, giving away many of the things they bring simply because I have no room for them.

If they miss a few weeks coming to the store, I kind of wonder what they are up to, whether the drought has messed with their plants too much or if they are simply done visiting for the year. Such is the give and take, the wonder and excitement in a relationship that lasts no more than twenty minutes at a time, once a week for thirty weeks out of the year.

Today they brought in a bucket of jujube fruit (Ziziphus zizyphus), also known as Chinese date. The variety they have comes off a tree that can grow to forty feet tall, but they try to maintain it at twenty-five feet. The fruit is about the size of a cherry. It is usually eaten when it turns brown, and it has a dry apple flavor. According to John’s folk science, eating a dozen of the fruit before bed will induce restful sleep. The fruit can also be left to dry on the tree and will become the consistency of a date with comparable sweetness.

As I sampled a jujube fruit, nibbling around the hard nut inside the flesh, I asked if the tree could be grown from seed. “Do you want a tree?” John asked. I wasn’t sure how to answer since I have never specifically asked him for something in the four years he has been coming to see me. I managed a “yeah, sure” answer that may have made me look more or less like an indifferent jerk. Nevertheless, he promised to bring me a tree – eventually – and I told him I’d find a place for it.