The elusive aroma and flavor hints at apple, orange, and peach.
Or perhaps mango, pineapple, pear, and rose; the best description might simply be "mayhaw." It's the small fruit of the hawthorn, a populous genus of trees and shrubs that grow in the northern hemisphere; its far-flung cousins find their way into Mexican ponche, Chinese tanghulu, and a Chinatown import that I once likened to "monochrome pepperoni."
In those areas of the American South where the hawthorn's wetland homes survive, mayhaws are sometimes still harvested from boats, scooped from the water where the ripe fruits have fallen. However, farm-raised mayhaws (as at Briarhill) are much more common, made into syrup, jam, and Joe and Jackie Dobie's delcious mayhaw jelly (6.7 oz.; $4). Also shown below: one of the freight trains that pass near the Uptown market every now and again.
Briarhill Farms
P.O. Box 277, Mount Hermon, Louisiana
985-877-5946
At the Uptown farmer's market, in the parking lot behind 200 Broadway, New Orleans
Tuesday, 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
www.CrescentCityFarmersMarket.org
