11 July 2017

Petites prunes rouges

Last Saturday our neighbor came over from across the street and rang the bell. She's the neighbor who lives most of the year in Blois, 25 miles north of Saint-Aignan. She and her husband are here for the summer season.



"There are millions of those little red plums over here, on and under the tree," she said. "They are ripe and sweet. If you want some, come and get them."



She didn't have to ask twice. We've enjoyed these early-ripening summertime plums for years now. They're about the size of large cherries, and they are a "freestone" vareity so they are easy to work with.



I went over there Sunday morning and picked — well, gathered — about three pounds of the plums. I say "gathered" because I picked them all up off the ground, and didn't take any off the tree.



Walt and I pitted them all. You can see they are red-skinned but yellow-fleshed. Pits from these plums are the ones I planted years ago, and now my plum tree is about as big as the one in the neighbors' yard. Problem is, the plums are not the same. These are better.



Walt made a simple tart with one batch of the plums. He rolled out a crust (pâte brisée, or short crust), sprinkled almond powder in the bottom, and arranged pitted plums in the shell to bake. I neglected to take a photo before we had eaten part of the tart.



I cooked the rest of the pitted plums with some sugar and vanilla to make a compote. It's not very sweet, and the tartness of the plums means that we can eat it as a sweet compote, with cream or yogurt and more sugar —  or we can add vinegar and some spices to some it to make a plum sauce to serve with veal, chicken, rabbit, or turkey.


15 comments:

  1. Are these the plums you used to make that fabulous jam?

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    1. I'm not sure which jam you mean. In the past, the neighbors have given us mirabelles and I've make a yellow jam with them. Before our own plum trees were uprooted in a windstorm, I made a brown-colored jam with those plums. I'm not sure I've ever made jam with the red plums, but I might well have.

      Es-tu dans le Dauphiné maintenant ?

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    2. It was a red plum jam I am talking about.

      Non, je pars mardi prochain pour près de trois semaines.

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    3. It must have been those plums then. I don't remember.

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  2. You need more plums in the freezer. I love pictures Walt's pastry.

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  3. What a wonderful 'windfall'. Plums make excellent jam and sauces. I was given a huge bag last year. I hope I get another bag this summer. I cook and freeze a lot as well. Plum jam, plum sauce, yum!
    Walt's tart looks mighty tasty.

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  4. We love those little red plums.
    There are several trees around and about where the fruit falls to the ground and is simply left to go to waste, kilos of it.

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  5. The tart looks amazing.

    Dumb question: if your tree is from the pits of the neighbor's tree, how can they be different?

    These plums look to be about the size of the plums from a tree we had in Phoenix. It was called a "Java Plum."

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    Replies
    1. The neighbors' tree is no doubt grafted. So when you plant the pits from its fruit, you don't get the same fruit on the new tree. If I understand correctly, what you get is a hybrid. The only way to get the same variety is by cloning, which is done by grafting. It's asexual vs. sexual reproduction. I'm sure somebody (Susan, Tim?) can explain this better than I can.

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    2. Thanks, Ken. That makes sense. It didn't occur to me. ;-)

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  6. I want this now, for breakfast :)

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  7. That tart looks simply delicious!

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  8. Thanks for asking Diogenes - and answering, Ken; I was wondering the same thing.

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