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?

Get 'em while you can!

Every year around this time, French prune plums 

make a brief and glorious return to Farmers Markets but only for a limited time. 

With their concentrated sweetness and easy perishability 

they are usually only sold in their dried and preserved states. 

But now for a brief time, you may see them at the Farmers Market. 

And we are especially lucky that we can pick some 

from our French Plum tree in the Orchard!

our French plums ripe on the tree

You might also know these gems as Sugar Plums. 

"These plums are variously called French Prunes, French Plums, 

Sugar Plums, and the odd but apt, Undried Prunes.
(because these plums are the ones most often used to make prunes).

Whatever you call them, get them. These sweet stone fruits are not to be missed.  

They're smaller than typical plums, maybe the size of an elongated ping-pong ball, 

with a dusky skin of mottled purple and yellow. 

The flesh itself is a deep autumn gold." 

The are incredibly sweet and can have a brown sugar flavor,
not too sweet but certainly not tart. 

They also have a surprisingly firm texture. 

They're juicy, but not to the point that you have to eat them hovered over the sink.

photo by Steven Krause page 308 in
Plats du Jour: the girl & the fig's Journey Through the Seasons in Wine Country

Their texture makes them wonderful to eat
but also perfect to cook (hence the drying for prunes).
Our chefs like to use our French plums in a clafouti. 

These plums are frequently used for this—a baked French dessert 

using fruit arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter. 

Did you know that the clafoutis comes from the Limousin region of France 

and while black cherries were the traditional fruit used, 

there are numerous variations using other fruits including red cherries, 

plums, prunes, apples, cranberries or blackberries. 

Our specialty at the girl & the fig stars our French plums. 

Or, you could just cook these plums down and serve them over ice cream.

Just remember to enjoy them soon. And to extend your enjoyment of French plums, 

here's how to transform them into prunes.

The short season for French plums reminds us that we are at the end of summer. 

Of course there is still time to enjoy the bounty of that season

even as we look ahead to the Autumn stars we will soon harvest. 

The beds planted with all the many Winter squash will soon take center stage 

on the table, replacing zucchini and lemon squash as inspiration in the kitchen.

Fall squash last year at the farm

But before that, while we are still picking summer fruit from the farm, 

it's great to know how we can extend our experience. Besides drying fruit like the plums, there other ways to preserve the bounty from the farm. 

Some of our recipes were recently featured in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. 

And the Huffington Post featured an interview with 

Executive Chef John Toulze talking about how easy it is to pickle vegetables. 

What summer fruit or vegetable are you still savoring these days?

And is there a favorite "end of summer" recipe you want to share?