Garden Therapy

Plums Plums Plums

For a brief moment in time I rented a house with a huge Italian Prune Plum tree in the backyard.  When the plums were ready, they would fall off the tree and knock me on the head as if to say, “Hey, pay attention to me!”  And when I finally obliged, I was pleasantly surprised that the tart but sweet egg-shaped beauts are not the messy drippy plums, but neat and organized, offering fabulousness and no muss.  So we climbed up the tree and shook the branches to get a bounty to eat and we left the rest to the birds. 

So when I bought my own house, the first thing we bought for the yard was a prune plum tree.  It is now a member of the family.  Sitting right by the compost heap, it gets regular organic feedings and enjoys a yearly pruning (snicker).  Then the question begs, what to do with hundreds of plums?  Last year I made preserves with vanilla and orange.  This year it was, Plum Apple Bran Muffins, Chinese Plum Sauce and the most amazing torte.  All were delicous but the torte was such a hit the first time I made it (on Thursday) that I remade it for the harvest party (Sunday) at the community garden.  The recipe is here: The Original Plum Torte.

It’s easy and tasty, and if you have some extra prune plums, give it a try.  I’m glad I was encouraged to!

September 28 2009 | Canning and Growing Food and Harvest and Photography | 2 Comments »

The Original Plum Torte Recipe

This was originally printed in the New York Times, Wednesday September 9, 1992 in an article called Eating Well by Marian Burros.

Ingredients: 

• 3/4 c sugar
• 1/2 c unsalted butter
• 1 c flour, sifted
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch salt, optional
• 2 eggs
• 12 Italian prune plums
• Sugar and lemon juice for topping
• 1 tsp cinnamon, or to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar in a bowl.  Add flour, baking powder, salt and eggs and beat well.  Spoon the batter into an 8”, 9”, or 10” spring form pan.  Split and pit the plums and place the halves, skin side up, on top of the batter.  Sprinkle lightly with sugar and lemon, depending o the sweetness of the fruit.  Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake about an hour.  Remove and cool; refrigerate or freeze if desired.  Or cool to lukewarm and then serve plain or with whipped cream.  Yield: 8 servings.  Note: to freeze, double wrap torte in aluminum foil place in plastic bag, and seal.  To serve, defrost and reheat briefly at 300 degrees.

For variation: 

 Strawberry Coconut Torte 

 Blueberry Lime Torte

Whole Wheat Caramelized Fig Torte with Amaretto Caramel

September 28 2009 | Baking and Harvest and Recipes | 3 Comments »