Day 9: September 2022

It’ll be Christmas in four days! It’ll be December on my countdown in four days! Wowsers. This year has gone quickly / don’t we all say that every year?

It’s not Christmas yet, though. And today finds us in September, full of late summer bounty in the form of PLUMS.

It’s difficult to overestimate how much fruit my in-laws’ garden produces. They have (I literally just asked because I’m here in Scotland) one green gage plum, one damson plum, one Victoria plum, two pear, two cherry and three apple trees. Ten fruit trees. 10! Their output is legit extraordinary. 🍎 🍐 🍒 🍏

This September was a self-imposed deep dive into the world of my in-laws’ (free and juicy and sweet and delicious) Victoria plums. I don’t particularly care for them raw like the plums I love in the US (please find me a better summer fruit than a perfect Santa Rosa plum— I dare you), so I decided to cook them. Ferment them into umeboshi. Braise them with duck legs. Stew them down into compote. Dehydrate them into lavashak. Roast them with chicken thighs. And bake them into a focaccia.

All in all, a sweet and savory and September success. The best I cooked that month.