Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Plumarines -- a new kind of fruit

I bought a few plumarines at Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market last weekend, and discovered that this is a stone fruit so new that nobody online has written anything about them yet.

So here it is: the first plumarine post. Not exactly the same as live Twittering the new health care legislation, but it'll have to do.

Plumarines are a cross between plums and nectarines. The ones I bought had light red outer skin, speckled with yellow. The flesh is off-white with deep maroon around the pit. They're only as big as a plum, not a nectarine, but they're heavy for their size.

They're very juicy, in part because these were very ripe. The flavor is closer to the sweetness of a white nectarine than the tartness of a plum, but you can taste hints of plum flavor. I found these to be very delicious, as good as any of the stone fruits I sampled at the market on Saturday, and that was quite a large number.

Their juiciness would make them a challenge for fruit pies, but a boon to drier baked goods. That said, these are so tasty and unique that I don't see any reason to, literally, tart them up. You could serve a little vanilla or ginger ice cream on the side.

Why am I writing this post? Two reasons. First, so that the next person who searches for plumarines finds my blog and can then move on to reading about other stuff like cocktails on a stick.

Second, so I can start using them in wine tasting notes, probably with off-dry Rieslings. "I'm getting apricot, plumarine, a whiff of diesel ..."

3 comments:

goma@sf said...

They are very tasty.
Hope we can see them more often in many place in near future.

Unknown said...

My father planted a plumarine tree in our backyard a few years ago (when he had told me what he wanted to plant I had to ask him to repeat the name several times as I had never heard of a plumarine tree before!). It finally had a great yield this year. I agree with your description; they are so lovely to eat! I prefer to eat them chilled. Whatever I can't give away to family, friends and neighbors I will cut up and freeze for future smoothie concoctions. I'm curious to see how they will hold up to freezing and smoothie making but I have a feeling they'll do well.

Unknown said...

I have known of a similar fruit but yellow in colour, in and out, and I have called it Plumarines for over 30 years now. Mine sound similar to your post except for the skin colour. I wish I could upload a pic or two here.