06 August 2017

A plethora of plums

Une pléthore de prunes, in other words. The dictionary says that's "literary" in French. Des prunes en surabondance. And they have been coming from our neighbors. Our two plum trees blew down in a big windstorm in 2010. This year, one neighbor had a bumper crop of little red plums. Now another has an even bigger crop of little yellow plums, some of them the ones called mirabelles.


So I did something I seldom do. I made a pie. Walt had gone to the store where we are buying the new freezer to see what it looked like in real life — I had seen it a day or two earlier and we'd been discussing the pros and cons of buying it. I had a store-bought pie crust (une pâte feuilletée, pur beurre) in the fridge and it needed to be used.


First I had to remove the pits from all those little plums. Actually, it didn't take very long to get the job done. Then I just had to line a pie pan with the pastry. That took only a minute. I put a quarter-inch layer of almond powder on the bottom of the pie crust, and then I more or less arranged the little plum halves over that. A sprinkle of sugar and a few "dots" of butter finished the pie, and into the oven it went.


With the rest of the plums, I made jam (yes, there were plenty of them). We don't eat very much jam, really, but we can always make jelly-roll cakes with it, or eat it mixed into yogurt. It won't go to waste.


Late yesterday afternoon, I heard the bell ring out at the front gate. It was our neighbor the mayor with another big bowl of cherries. « Bonsoir Ken. J'espère que je ne t'embête pas », she said, pointing at the big bowl of plums she had in her other hand. I assured her that I was happy to have the plums. We chatted for a minute or two. Now I have to figure out what to do with another kilogram of prunes. Maybe I can, in fact, make prunes — dried plums, they call them now — in the dehydrator.

12 comments:

  1. Dehydrated plums REALLY work.... it seems to intensify the flavour! We haven't had a crop off our Reine Claude d'Orée for two years.... frosts.... and our stock is getting low. I tend to just chew on them!

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  2. These mirabelle plums are so tiny. I wonder how they'll do in the dehydrator.

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    1. Fine!
      They look to be free-stone....going on the top picture.... so aren't damaged in the destoning process.
      Just cut them part way through, destone and butterfly. Start dehydration cut face up.

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  3. Can they be frozen for a clafloutis or brûléed? I just made them from fresh, but wondered if they would hold their texture. Any thoughts?

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  4. I can freeze them individually on cookie sheets or other pans, but I don't know what the texture will be when they're thawed or cooked. It might be worth a try.

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  5. That was nice of the mayor to stop by with fruit. Embeter is a French word I hadn't heard before. I enjoy it when you pepper your posts with French words. I usually pick up a few that stick.

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  6. You might try roasting them whole (pits and all) or cut up without sugar; it's easy and you can use up a lot of fruit that way. We freeze roasted stone fruit and eat it plain or with a little sweet or sour cream for dessert. Or add flavoring to make it a relish to go with meat.
    My first attempt at a comment vanished before my eyes before I could post it!

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    1. This keeps happening to me, too, Chrissou. I'm usually on Safari when it happens... you?

      I forgot, Ken, that you have the dehydrator! I hope you'll post photos of the process, if you use if with the plums.

      You could add some to cottage cheese pie, too :)

      Judy

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    2. Sorry to hear about the comment woes. This happens to me once in a while, on Firefox. CHM's comments often come in twice, for some reason. I'm not sure what browser he uses.

      As for the plums, I think I'll make compote again. It's easy and can be frozen.

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  7. Seine Judeet: I use Safari, which frequently misbehaves, so that's probably the problem. And it just happened again.

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  8. I've never just sprinkled almond flour in a crust like that. I'll try it- such an easy way to make a pie. Do you need to peel the plums when you make prunes?

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