ariel & sam are making ... plum sauce

we have a lovely plum tree in the backyard and this year we had quite a plum harvest. some of them were really soft, so sam and i decided to make a plum sauce.

all you do is de-pit them, cut them into a cooking pot -- add about a cup of water, some cinnamon, ginger, a spoon of honey ...

and cook them 'til they're sauce. yum!

we used it mostly on top of our oatmeal in the morning, but it can be used on anything. a great way to preserve very ripe fruit!

kisses,

ariel

ariel's making ... upside down loquat, plum, banana, sage cake

i love love love loquats! and in san francisco, you can find them all over the place growing on trees. no one really seems to eat them much -- so start looking around ... they are tangy and sweet and have beautiful seeds inside.

on the 4th of july we had a big bbq in the backyard (fotos here!) and i was in charge of dessert. we had a bunch of very ripe loquats, so i thought i'd make a cake. first i halved and de-pitted the loquats.

then i made the cake batter:

3/4 stick of organic butter

1 c. organic powdered sugar

1 organic egg

2 very ripe organic bananas

1/2 c. backyard plum sauce (that recipe coming soon!) ... you can use jam instead.

1/2 t. of baking soda and baking powder

1 1/2 c. organic w.w. flour

1 c. organic almond flour

mix together!

then i chopped in some fresh sage.

in a frying pan i added 1/4 t. of butter, melted it and then added the loquats and cooked them for about 3 minutes. then, leaving the loquats in the pan, i added the batter on top and put it in the oven at 400* for about 30 minutes.

right when it came out of the oven, i flipped it onto a plate -- and ta-da! upside down loquat cake!

i also made a simple ricotta cheese topping with a little sugar and ginger in it, that i dolloped onto of the cake as i was serving it. there was none left -- i think it was a hit!

happy loquat foraging!

kisses,

ariel

ariel's harvesting ... sour plums

the sun is shining this weekend and the fruit on the trees are starting to ripen! how exciting! i wanted to do a post about urban foraging. chef sam and i are big on foraging in the city for fruit. there is a plethora of fruit trees in san francisco and a lot of it goes unpicked. luckily, the foraging trend is catching on and city grown fruit is being properly harvested.


the plum tree in our backyard produces lovely little purple plums, but you have to harvest them on the sour side, because when they get ripe they just fall to the ground and smmmmooosh. i love them sour though ... i even took a bag of them on a picnic with the girls today, and the whole big bag was devoured.



so even though some trees produce smaller fruits, that doesn't mean they don't taste amazing!

oh -- and get yourself a handy fruit picker. they're super fun to use :)

enjoy the sunshine this weekend sweeties!

kisses,

ariel