Sugar plums

0702 sugarplums
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

Yup, OK, like you I've heard of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet.

But this is the first time I ever remember seeing sugar plums. I always imagined they were glace plums, or plums somehow otherwise cooked/preserved. Wasn't it plums that Amy got into trouble for at school, in Little Women? That she bought with Meg's hard-earned?

So there at my favourite well-lit fruit and vege shop was this array of sugar plums. They were distinctly smaller than usual plums, their colour a wondrous range from chartreuse through deep red to, well, plum. There's a hand-dye crossover worth trying (as I'm sure it has been).

I probably should have bought some. But I went for two punnets of blackberries instead, because they're divine with sweet plain yoghurt, and almost equally rare (certainly they are rarely $2.99/punnet) and brought the sugar plums home in my camera.

I might go back next week, though...I'm conscious of the seasonality of all this wonderful stone fruit (had some white peaches last week that were fresh and singing on the tongue), and that it won't last. Already mangoes are becoming dirt cheap, and when they become dirt cheap they're coming to the end of their time - a huge change from the first box of mangoes at the Sydney wholesale fruit markets in spring, which is traditionally auctioned and raises a significant sum for charity.

But then, the flip side of the seasonality is that when they're here, they're good. It's all very well having apples, for instance, available all year, but not when they're not worth eating because they're soft or boardy or not properly apple-y, crisp and with sweet-sharp juice.

Sugar plums are probably nice with sweet plain yoghurt too.