Madroño

I'm finally alone!  Now, don't get me wrong, having a constant visitor for the first 2 months was great, but certainly not for my "followers" because I have been very neglectful.  

But have no fear!  I'm here with plenty of news for you!  But, we'll start small and maybe write more frequently.  Yesterday I got to try a madroño for the first time.  What is a madroño you ask?  Well, it's a fruit that looks like....

this!

It's a small piece of fruit that comes from this tree:

Whhaaaaat????  ¡Que guay!  (How cool!)

Here's a picture of the actual tree.  It's just coincidence that I have these two last pictures.  They were taken in Madrid during a tour that we took and they told us how this is the tree of madrid.  El oso y madroño are the symbols of Madrid, though the tree is not native to Madrid, this one was planted there along with a few others:

These fruits aren't ripe yet.  I read online that the fruits aren't very good raw but make a great jam.  I have to disagree.  The fruit was very good, nice and sweet.  It was soft on the inside but the outside is sort of crunchy.  To me the crunch of the outside was similar to eating blackberries which have little seeds.  One of the teachers brought the madroños to school from her garden.