Sister, Can You Spare a Ximenia Caffra Fruit?
February 1, 2007 by kate baggott
Filed under Nutrition
Photo by Geoff Nichols at Plantzafrica.
I had a semi-evil plan for fruit or vegetable X!
If I couldn’t find a real Xigua, I was going to buy the smallest, roundest watermelon I could find and tell the kids it was a xigua (Chinese watermelon). I was then, going to refer to all watermelon as Xigua until September.
I can’t do it.
I remembered the earring for a cow incident from my own childhood.
When I was 5 year-old, my dad went on away on a business trip. The day he came home, my first question, naturally, was, “What did you bring me?”
He handed me a small plastic object with a short chain loop.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Well,” he said, its an earring for a cow. They pierce a hole in the cow’s ear and put the chain through the hole like this…and then, if the cow gets lost, someone can call the farmer.”
So…
The next day I went to kindergarten and I held my new treasure aloft during show and tell.
“Does anyone know what this is?!” I asked my class.
“A key chain,” they said.
“No! It’s an earring for a cow,” I said. “They pierce a hole in the cow’s ear and put the chain through the hole like this…and then, if the cow gets lost, someone can call the farmer.”
“Katie, it’s a keychain,” my class insisted.
Some people have no imagination. Especially tragic in children, don’t you think?
Still, I will not put my evil plan into action. We ate watermelon for W and I have to find an African grocery store in the hopes of finding a Ximenia Caffra Fruit…
Does anyone know if it comes canned?
hi, kate, AFAIK, xigua = watermelon. watermelon is just the english name and xigua is the Chinese name.
I wasn’t completely sure if it was a direct translation for watermelon, or if there was a specific type of watermelon known as a Xigua…still, it needs to be exotic-looking watermelon to pass…
You know, Ximenia Caffra Fruit is also known as the Large Sour Plum, but it just doesn’t have the same ring…
This post was hilarious. It will make me think twice before I make something up to my girls again! LOL!
Thanks for sharing this with the Carnival of Family Life.
Cute story. I think we all have one of those from a childhood. We all so easily and readily believe everything we are told when we are little.
Here via the carnival of family life.
Thanks Lisa and Local Girl, I appreciate your stopping by!