I hold a pluot in my hand and it feels cool under my fingers as I admire its shiny smooth exterior. The fruit sports a rich red colour on top, as if wearing a beanie, but as it curves down, it breaks into a lighter colour. A colour resembling a pinot noir held up to the light. The surface is dotted with orangey spots, thousands of them. They make me giggle and remind me of my last trip to the planetarium. I can see scratches on the skin if I look very closely. Yesterday it was firmer to my touch and it didn’t have the three dents that are there now. I took it home but completely forgot about it in my bag and here we are; it becomes today’s snack.
Floyd Zaiger, born in 1925, a biologist noted for his work in fruit genetics is responsible for this creation. The pluot, also called a plumcot, is a complex cross hybrid of the plum and the apricot. Pluots are noted for their sweetness, their intense flavour, and very juicy pulp.
My mouth waters as I write about it and prepare for my first bite. I haven’t had a plum in some time, and I don’t know that I’ve ever had an apricot that wasn’t dehydrated. Here we go. I think I’ll bite into the dark red part first. It appeals to me.
A drop of juice unexpectedly trickles out of my bite around the side of the fruit, and I quickly lap it up. O god, no, please, not on my Tocca sweater! The flesh resembles applesauce in colour. I expected more apricot but it’s really more plum in flavour.
Wait!
The inside middle is darker than the surrounding flesh. I can no longer blog and enjoy, I have to completely surrender to this piece of remaining fruit.
Four minutes later:
It was a delightful experience. I am sucking off every bit of fibre remaining on the pit. I was pleasantly surprised by how sweet it wasn’t. Based on the Wikipedia descriptions, I believe I just devoured a Flavour Fall pluot. The word used is: average, I prefer subtle.
It’s not unlike fall, the season. It’s quite easy to miss the early part of this season if you are too snug in the cocoon that is your New York City life. Reserving time for fruit picking in the country or simply a ride through, is a must to revitalise the senses. I remember a trip I made with a friend two years ago. We visited the Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay. It was a rainy day and there were maybe five other people present. It was surreal, and if we hadn’t captured the sights with our cameras under huge umbrellas no one would have believed the beauty we were witness too. It was like a larger than life photo shop moment. Only it wasn’t a mirage.
One must make the time, make the appointment with nature so not to miss the beauty of what life really is. I don’t know how to bring some of that to my day, to my office life. Some use screensavers, some strategically place hard photos around their desks and credenzas, others have digital frames, I suppose it’s a good starting point.
Maybe I will keep my pluot pit as a souvenir and reminder right on my keyboard. I mean, stranger things have been found in offices, right?
You're writing about fruit again. That can only mean one thing. Well, several, but it's good to let the mind wonder/wander.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember hearing of a pluot before, however, you made my mouth water with your description of it and it sounds like a fruit with a lot to say for itself, which I like. Apples are lovely to crunch into. You can hear the tear of pith as you pull apart an orange. Bananas, although yummy, are relatively dumb when it comes to aural pleasure, especially once you've unzipped them. Bananas are good for library eating, but, along with the apple, the pluot seems to be a fruit that can assuredly take its place in the office lunchbox for special effects, when you want other people to know you're enjoying what you're eating. And I like a fruit that splashes; one you can lose yourself and your tongue in/on for a moment or two, like a good kiss, something that doesn't happen too often in an office between the hours of 9 to 5. If only...