Plums

Victoria has lots of plum trees on nature strips. I’m not sure why there are quite so many, but go almost anywhere in the city or rural towns and people will regularly look out on a plum tree or three from their lounge room windows. The plums are mostly small and purple-red, with some later-blooming green-changing-to-pink varieties as well. These are not the golf ball-sized blood plums that turn up on supermarket shelves.

In Turkey I learned that plums can be eaten young – before the pips are formed. They are crunchy and tart. Not bitter or unpleasant to eat, but definitely tart. The sort of tartness that stimulates the blood into knowing that you’re alive … and this vitality is a grand thing to experience! Ain’t it great to be alive?

Young plums in my region can be eaten from October onwards, almost as soon as they start to form. Gradually, as they get bigger and the pips form, it becomes harder to eat them without cracking my teeth against the nutty-tasting seeds.

By January, when most other people consider them to be ready, the flesh of the plums has softened and they are juicy: little nuggets of sweet juice. The change in texture from the young plums is vast – just as it is in humans, where adults don’t resemble themselves as children, in terms of their outer skin.

So here’s to three months of Nature’s gifts – for free! A great ingredient for my breakfast bowl.

Thank you, Mother Nature!