Since our fruit trees got pruned this year, we’re seeing an impressive amount of fruit, way more than we’ve ever had, presenting us with a new problem — our pluot tree had branches so heavy with fruit that one even broke! So we learned that we also need to thin fruit from the trees. Aside from avoiding damage to the tree, it also will help the tree bear bigger and tastier fruit, as well as encouraging the tree to “promote an annual fruit set.”

… sometimes plum trees only fruit biennially instead of every year. This is due to the fact that the tree has produced such a copious crop that it’s just plain done and needs an extra season to gather its resources before it can fruit again.

So what to do with all these unripe pluots?

Jo, one of our trained pruners, was inspired by her friends Carrie Dashow and Suresh Pillai at Atina Foods who make amazing salt pickled “herb jams” and chutney based on South Indian Ayuvedic traditions using their garden in the Catskills.

Tkemali is a sour plum sauce from Georgia (think the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, not southern US). Jo says it’s something they make in huge batches when they have to thin out the orchards, or when the “june drop” happens. They then use it as a condiment all summer. She used this recipe as a guide, which is a lot more specific on the quantities of ingredients and each of the steps, with pics along the way, but you can adjust based on the amount of unripe fruit that you have.

Ingredients:
Unripe green Pluots from our farm
Cilantro and Dill from store (because our herbs aren’t ready to harvest yet)
Green, mildly hot Peppers & Garlic from the Windsor Terrace Food Coop

Preparation:

1. Finely chop the cilantro, dill, and peppers. Separate the garlic into cloves.
2. Wash plums and add to a deep pan. Add water until the plums are covered (no more).
3. Heat on high temperature until the plums are boiled and then reduce temperature to simmer the plums.
4. Continue to simmer the plums until they are soft.
5. Remove the plums from the pan and add to a bowl and leave to cool. Put the water left in the pan in a separate bowl.
6. Crush the chopped coriander and green peppers together. Crush the garlic cloves separately.
7. Place a sieve over a deep pan and add the cooled plums. Gradually add the plum water that was saved after boiling the plums and firmly press the plums with a wooden spoon. You may need to use your hands to ensure that all of the pulp and juice is strained through the sieve. (This could take a while.)
8. Discard the plum stones once all of the pulp and juice has been strained into the pan.
9. Add the cilantro and green pepper mixture, together with the crushed garlic. Add salt (to your preference), stir to thoroughly mix and then heat on a medium temperature.
10. Taste the sauce and if it is too sour add a little sugar and stir thoroughly. You may need to keep adding and tasting until you’ve balanced the sourness of the plums.
11. When the sauce has boiled, add the chopped dill. Stir to mix thoroughly and boil the sauce for one minute.
12. Allow the sauce to cool before bottling or storing in glass containers.

Tkemali sauce can be served with meat, poultry and potato dishes; it has a place in Georgian cuisine similar to tomato ketchup in America.

Knowing when to harvest is easy with some plants. Tomatoes aren’t usually a problem, and green tomatoes are usually more of a fall gardening issue, but we had a couple tomatoes that were knocked off a plant before they ripened. Someone recommended pickling!

Working off this recipe, I scaled it down a lot, as these two tomatoes were only about 3 ounces total. They fit in a 8 ounce jar perfectly.

Green Tomato Pickles

3 oz tomatoes
1 small garlic clove
¼ cup white vinegar
¼ cup water
½ tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
¼ tsp black peppercorns
pinch red pepper flakes
½ tsp bourbon

1. Slice the tomatoes, either into ¼-inch thick slices, or halve them and cut into 8-10 wedges. Pack the tomatoes tightly in each jar, and place a few slices of garlic and a few fronds of dill in each jar.
2. In a small saucepan, combine vinegar, water, salt, sugar, peppercorns, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and add bourbon.
3. Pour brine over pickles, filling jar to within ¼-inch of the top. Make sure all of the tomatoes are fully submerged. If they start to float, wedge a few more tomato pieces in there to keep them firmly packed.
4. Screw on jar lid and refrigerate for at least 3 days to allow pickles to fully pickle, and after that pickles will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

On the other hand, it was harder to tell if our first watermelon was ripe or not. Cutting it open revealed white flesh, with just a blush of red beginning to form. Unripened watermelon tastes strangely similar, it’s just that none of the sugar has developed, so it isn’t sweet at all. I took to the internet again and found several good ideas.

I went with a White Watermelon Spritzer:

1. Puree the watermelon flesh and strain out the seeds.
2. Muddle some mint leaves in a glass with about a teaspoon of powdered sugar, and add some crushed ice.
3. Pour in the watermelon puree, optionally add a shot your alcohol of choice (I went with a jasmine liqueur I’ve been experimenting with), and top it off with seltzer. It’s a light, refreshing drink and not too sweet!