The Pluot Invasion

Is it just me, or did someone mess with August and make it last twice as long? Between triple digit heat here in Northern California, wildfires, and the ever present pandemic threat, I thought August would never end.

There are two other things I thought might never happen. One, I thought the fruit on my Flavor King pluot tree would never ripen. Two, once it did ripen, I thought I’d never get all the fruit off the tree.

In my last blog post, I talked about a Very Naughty Squirrel that stole all the fruit from my pluot tree. That tree was my Flavor Supreme, which only produced about a dozen pluots (it rarely produces much). The other pluot tree, the Flavor King, ripens much later in the summer. And this year the Flavor King exploded with fruit.

With all that bounty, you would have thought that Very Naughty Squirrel would have had a field day. But there has been no sign of any pilferage. For some reason, Mr. VNS doesn’t like Flavor King pluots Considering how much fruit there was, I might have welcomed a little thievery.

Whenever I’ve gone out to harvest, I’ve brought in the same enormous amount. And I swear to you that when I’ve gone out the next day, it looked like the tree had replaced the fruit I’d picked with a fresh batch. I brought in the last of it over the weekend, and I’m a little afraid to go out there again. There might be more.

I shouldn’t complain because these pluots are the most delicious fruit I’ve ever tasted. And the jam I make from them is like nectar of the gods. I just never thought I’d have such a large harvest that I’m sneaking bags of pluots into other people’s houses. 😉

I did can some (which was a disaster—can you say “exploding fruit?”). I plan to make more jam. And of course we’ll be eating fresh pluots like there’s no tomorrow. As good as they are, I don’t think we’ll get tired of eating them. I’m just worried they’ll overripen and go to waste. So, does anyone out there have some great recipes using stone fruit? I’m sure anything that calls for plums or apricots would also be good with pluots. If you have any suggestions, leave a comment.