Bold and tasty farm colors

Recently we focused on our greens at the farm. 

But as we look ahead to Fall Harvest, we savor 

the last bits of summer flavor and all the other colors at the farm. 

It's a whimsical mash up of reds and purples that seem 

to suggest summer, fall and winter simultaneously. 

Red cayenne peppers nestled in green leaves 

say summer with their heat taste 

but remind us that the red and green 

of Christmas decorations are not all that far away.

cayenne peppers

And there is more color on display that look like Christmas ornaments.

pomegranates in the Insectary

Black Beauty eggplants

Rose Bianca eggplants

But of course we are getting ahead of ourself with Christmas references. 

A recent unusual spate of hot weather pulls us back to summer 

as does the juicy taste of our French improved plums 

that can be eaten right from the tree. 

French improved plum

There are many varieties of plum trees. Our French plum is of the European variety 

which are self-pollinating and can grow to 25' tall. 

Sweeter and less juicy than some plums, they are luscious to eat, 

but these same qualities are why they are ideal to dry for prunes. 

And then right next to the plum trees, are the other late bloomers 

our pluots, which dot the Orchard with more variation of color. 

Did you know there are 22 varieties of pluots?!

Pinkish yellow Flavor Grenade Pluot

 and lavender purple Flavor King Pluot

Or, you may be saying you don't even know what a pluot is? 

Andy Rooney had some fun with that in 

one of his signature "really?" segments on 60 Minutes:

Pluots are a plum-apricot hybrid and indeed originated in California. 

They were developed near Modesto by Floyd Zaiger,
who has been called "the fruit innovator to the world."
Profiled last year in the San Francisco Chronicle, Zaiger, now 86
is described as "arguably the most famous plant breeder alive today.
He has created novel new fruit - like the pluot - that grace tables around the world.
He has also improved familiar varieties,
such as creating plums that can weather an intercontinental voyage.

These innovations have revolutionized an increasingly global fruit industry, 

earning him a reputation among farmers and fellow fruit experts 

that is hard to overstate."Big, with all capital letters," suggested Tom Gradziel, 

a geneticist and professor of plant sciences at UC Davis."

one of our 4 pluot trees

In our Orchard 4 pluot trees stand appropriately
between 3 plum trees and 4 apricot trees.

 We know that's how they were planted that way,

but it is as if the plums and the apricots did their thing right in our Orchard!
Floyd's goal was "to capture the aromatics and texture of an apricot
and the sweet juiciness of a plum, but without the bitter skin of the latter."
Now that you know what they are and how they came about,
here's a take on what to do with a pluot.


For us at the girl & the fig right now, our plums
are taking center stage with a Garden Plum Crisp
as the finale to our bistro Plats du Jour.

Now that you know a little more about them 

and before we are only able to enjoy these summer fruits dried, 

what's your favorite thing to do with plums or pluots?