Plums

Plums usually don't start until the end of May, but a few growers, mostly of Armenian origin, have started bringing green plums, which are unripe fruits the size of cherries. These are hard and sour, and would not appeal to most Americans, but they're much appreciated in the Mideast as the first fruits of spring and are eaten fresh, sometimes with a pinch of salt. Alan Asdoorian of Island Farms, from Kingsburg, says that his customers want only a certain variety with a distinctive taste and that if he runs out and tries to bring similar-looking immature fruits of standard varieties, like Friar or Simka, they wave their fingers and say " voch" — "no" in Armenian.

The Japanese apricot -- a plant native to China, actually -- is one of the longest lived of the flowering fruit trees. It's a symbol of resilience in the face of adversity thanks to its early flowers, delicate promises of spring that can begin blossoming before New Year's Day. The tree continues to send out white, rose or red flowers on nearly leafless branches, luring bees all through the winter. And then there is the fruit. Golf-ball sized orbs begin to appear in spring.

  Plum ketchup Total time: About 11/2 hours Servings: Makes about 10 (8-ounce) jars Note: Adapted from Valerie Gordon of Valerie Confections. Sweet smoked paprika and Marash pepper are available at specialty spice stores. 1 pound Roma tomatoes 4 pounds Santa Rosa plums or other black-skinned plums 3 cups brown sugar 1/4 cup olive oil 1 red onion, diced 1 tablespoon chopped garlic 2 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika 1 teaspoon Marash pepper 1 teaspoon chopped garlic 1 tablespoon salt 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 tablespoon molasses 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1. Peel the tomatoes: With a sharp paring knife, cut a small X at the base of each tomato.

With dark blue, astringent skins, and dry, sour flesh, the ancient plums called damsons aren't good for eating fresh. When submitted to a process akin to alchemy, however, their tartness and spiciness are ideal for making preserves. Cooked down, the damson's astringency disappears, and its tannic skin imparts a gorgeous magenta color and rich, spicy flavor, while its abundant pectin confers a lusciously thick and smooth consistency. Originating in western Asia (supposedly near Damascus, whence its name)

With dark blue, astringent skins, and dry, sour flesh, the ancient plums called damsons aren't good for eating fresh. When submitted to a process akin to alchemy, however, their tartness and spiciness are ideal for making preserves. Cooked down, the damson's astringency disappears, and its tannic skin imparts a gorgeous magenta color and rich, spicy flavor, while its abundant pectin confers a lusciously thick and smooth consistency. Originating in western Asia (supposedly near Damascus, whence its name)

Deep, dusky, purplish blues. Rich, ripe reds. Golden-tinged greens. Tart and tangy, sweet and juicy, plums are the most diverse of all summer fruit. With more than 140 varieties now being grown, plums not only provide superb eating right out of hand, but also retain their distinctive qualities when combined with other ingredients and are well suited to any number of cooking techniques.

"Chicken With Plums," the second movie from the directors of the animated feature "Persepolis," is a live-action work that uses animation as a flourish. Yet it's more of a cartoon than its predecessor, with Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud adopting a self-contained visual scheme for nearly every emphatic emotion. And there are no other kinds of emotion in this time-shifting memory poem: The romance is absolute, the despair unquenchable. Even more than its source material, Satrapi's graphic novel of the same name, the film is a luxuriant lament.

For two months it seemed like summer would never come for our nectarines and plums, which were delayed and somewhat less flavorful than usual. This week, the big heat finally arrived in the San Joaquin Valley, bringing an abundance of choice varieties to peak ripeness all at once. For the next two months, that area will pump out great varieties every week, if you know what to look for. None is greater, or more exasperating, than the Snow Queen white nectarine. Choose a specimen with a full, rounded shape, a creamy ground color, and leathery, speckled skin on part of its surface.

The Hawthorne Del Aire farmers market, which celebrates its first anniversary this Saturday, is modest in size, with a dozen certified vendors, but its organizers are earnest about serving their community. It's sponsored by the Del Aire Neighborhood Assn., and managed by Susan Hillyer, who worked as a marketing director at Safeway and Bristol Farms before shifting careers. She volunteered at the Torrance market for Mary Lou Weiss, a veteran manager who acted as a mentor. So far she's put together a good local venue, a little sleepy, with only a few dubious vendors.

Peak season Santa Rosa plums: Luther Burbank did a lot more than just lend his name to a Southern California city. He was one of the most prolific plant breeders ever, responsible for developing the russet potato that bears his name (the Russet Burbank) as well as more than 800 varieties of fruit and vegetables.

"Chicken With Plums," the second movie from the directors of the animated feature "Persepolis," is a live-action work that uses animation as a flourish. Yet it's more of a cartoon than its predecessor, with Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud adopting a self-contained visual scheme for nearly every emphatic emotion. And there are no other kinds of emotion in this time-shifting memory poem: The romance is absolute, the despair unquenchable. Even more than its source material, Satrapi's graphic novel of the same name, the film is a luxuriant lament.

Iran-born, Paris-based filmmaker Marjane Satrapi is a force of nature. A fluent English speaker, she's gregarious and easily takes over a room. Her French collaborator, Vincent Paronnaud, is the opposite: low-key, with a wry sense of humor who conducts interviews aided by a translator. But when it comes to cinema, the esteemed graphic novelists seem to have found a compatible artistic sensibility. Their first feature collaboration, "Persepolis," an expressionistic, hand-drawn, black-and-white animated film, earned the duo an Oscar nomination.

Most California apples are grown either well north of Los Angeles, in mountains, or near the coast, where cool winters and nights boost production and quality. Ojai, atrociously hot in summer, is better known for its citrus, but in some of its valleys where cold air pools, the microclimate is surprisingly suitable for apples, which were grown there on a modest scale in decades past. The possibility was clear on Monday when Cecilio Marquez and his crew harvested Galas from an 8-acre orchard, leased from a couple who bought the property from Otis Chandler, publisher of The Times from 1960 to 1980.

HANFORD, Calif. - Combining the high sugar and flavor of cherries with the larger fruit size and extended season of plums has been a longstanding dream for fruit breeders, but such crosses are difficult to make successfully so that the hybrids yield abundant high-quality fruit. Zaiger's Genetics of Modesto, the inventors of Pluots and Apriums, managed the trick, and the fruit started showing up several years ago in very small quantities at upstate farmers markets; this year vendors at local farmers markets have begun offering plum-cherry hybrids, and the first commercial orchard has started bearing fruit.

In recent years, poet Stanley Plumly gave readers "Posthumous Keats," a gorgeous, award-winning prose meditation on the great English Romantic poet's life and death. With "Orphan Hours: Poems" (W.W. Norton: $25.95), the Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, ruminates again on the topic of mortality, though this time the subject is much closer to home. Surely there's a struggle ahead for anyone with a serious illness, but in the poem "Cancer," he offers a respite from the horror by addressing the disease from a startling, cosmic perspective.

Last month Joe Brooke of Next Door Lounge scored as runner-up in L.A.'s Best Bartender competition at Elevate Lounge. Combining a charming, laid-back personality with in-depth knowledge of spirits, Brooke got the judge's attention and held it. Several weeks later, Brooke unveiled his new fall cocktail menu for Next Door Lounge, a list of warm-burning classics made with next-level twists. Take our favorite, the Plum Tuckered, a stylish coupette of green tea-infused gin, tangy lemon, frothy egg white and sweet simple syrup.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture on Wednesday announced marketing orders for plums, which consumer advocates said would result in tighter supplies and higher prices for the fruit. The marketing order gives a state-appointed committee of plum farmers the right to set appearance standards for the fruit. Plums not meeting the standards--those with a spot of sunburn, for example--cannot be legally sold, though they are edible.

The state Supreme Court is giving California's largest plum grower another chance to challenge the state's mandatory cooperative advertising program, which some growers contend is costly and ineffective. Last week, the court agreed to review Gerawan Farming's case against the state. Gerawan and about a dozen other growers had challenged marketing orders in a 1st Amendment case that was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997.

For two months it seemed like summer would never come for our nectarines and plums, which were delayed and somewhat less flavorful than usual. This week, the big heat finally arrived in the San Joaquin Valley, bringing an abundance of choice varieties to peak ripeness all at once. For the next two months, that area will pump out great varieties every week, if you know what to look for. None is greater, or more exasperating, than the Snow Queen white nectarine. Choose a specimen with a full, rounded shape, a creamy ground color, and leathery, speckled skin on part of its surface.

Plums usually don't start until the end of May, but a few growers, mostly of Armenian origin, have started bringing green plums, which are unripe fruits the size of cherries. These are hard and sour, and would not appeal to most Americans, but they're much appreciated in the Mideast as the first fruits of spring and are eaten fresh, sometimes with a pinch of salt. Alan Asdoorian of Island Farms, from Kingsburg, says that his customers want only a certain variety with a distinctive taste and that if he runs out and tries to bring similar-looking immature fruits of standard varieties, like Friar or Simka, they wave their fingers and say " voch" — "no" in Armenian.