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Early Stone Fruit
Hollywood, California

2009_05_18-stonefruit1.JPGIt's hard to believe, but stone fruit season is already upon us. First there were the cherries, and now we're being treated to early apricots, plums, and apriums.

 
 

2009_05_18-stonefruit2.JPGIn addition to regular apricots, we are seeing apriums, which are an apricot-plum hybrid. Whereas pluots are 3/4 plum and 1/4 apricot, these are 3/4 apricot and 1/4 plum. The consistency is much like an apricot, but the initial honey sweetness is followed by a hint of tartness that we quite enjoy.

2009_05_18-stonefruit3.JPGGreen sour plums have also made an appearance. One vendor offered up samples of the crisp, tiny fruits rolled in salt and chile powder, and the combination of tart and spice was delicious.

Which stone fruits are you seeing or looking forward to at your market?

• For more information on the Hollywood farmers' market and other Los Angeles area markets, visit Farmernet.com

Related: LA Farmers' Market Report: Stone Fruit: Spring in Hollywood

(Images: Emily Ho)

Tags

SoCal Farmers' Market Report, Farmers' Market, Spring, Local - West Coast, Ingredients - Fruit, GREEN IDEAS, sour plums, apricots, stone fruit, apriums

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Comments (8)

I spy: Boujikian Farms! God, I really do have it bad for HFM.

posted by EasilyAmused on May 18th 2009 at 11:26am
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Santa Rosa Plums. They're the ONLY thing I can use to make the plum preserves that my dad (rest his soul) would make for us....

posted by Skerlie B on May 18th 2009 at 11:51am
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Spoiled Californians! I still haven't found ramps! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

posted by shayna on May 18th 2009 at 11:52am
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I want to be spoiled too! Green sour plums (Erik in Turkish) doesn't even come anywhere near Washington, DC. I have to wait and buy them online from a Turkish product seller.

posted by mercimekli kofte on May 18th 2009 at 12:33pm
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I just heard that the apricot season in SF is going to be short, so eat up!
I bought some under ripe apricots at the Berkeley Bowl last week and once ripened they were perfectly sweet & delish.

posted by AnnebelleSF on May 18th 2009 at 1:07pm
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This is my second week buying apricots and I've been purchasing cherries now for about a month. This past weekend I did see my first glimpse of plums although I did not partake. I also love the Santa Rosa plums-they are so tasty and excellent eaten out of hand.

posted by rosebud on May 18th 2009 at 1:50pm
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Are green sour plums a different variety, or are they just unripe red/purple plums? The ones in the photo don't look like Greengages / Reine Claudes -- they lack that translucence of a ripe plum, too.

Annebelle - most stone fruits will soften off the branch, but they don't usually develop their full sweetness if they're picked too early.

And it wouldn't surprise me at all if the stone fruit season in the Bay Area is seriously small / short /expensive -- the huge rains we had during early spring wiped out a lot of blossoms, and those that remained got drenched so badly their pollen stuck to gummy petals. Our usually prolific Santa Rosa plum tree is almost bare; we'll maybe get a couple dozen fruit this year, compared with the 20 gallons we got last year.

posted by Married ...with Dinner on May 18th 2009 at 1:50pm
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I bought green plums from that same vendor and turned them into umeshu (Japanese plum wine)! I posted the recipe here. I've also seen them at Super King Market if anyone else in the LA area is looking for them.

posted by Anjali on May 18th 2009 at 2:46pm
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