It just so happens that Italian plum season arrives at the tail end of summer, bringing the season of stone fruits to an end with a bang. They don't need to be peeled, and the already small fruit doesn’t need to be cut down to size.

Not only that, but Italian plums are a cinch to prepare because the freestone pit practically falls right out. That’s because when they cook, these not-so-juicy plums transform into a concentrated, jammy deliciousness without turning to mush. To borrow a phrase, Italian plums (also known as “prune” or “Stanley” plums) “don't get no respect.” They’re about half the size of a typical plum and are curiously egg shaped, as if they’re all pit and no fruit.īut savvy cooks know that the secret to these modest, bluish-purple fruits is the application of heat. People ask me all the time if I ever had any formal training for my television segments, and I tell them I had the best training of all - selling produce door-to-door off my father’s truck since the age of 5, learning how to talk to people and have real conversations with them.Įvery time I eat a plum cake, I remember Oma and how good things were. It was a time when we could have a conversation and slow down and enjoy the day - not just about texting and rushing around with no time for real communication like things are nowadays, which makes me sad.

In those days, our store wasn’t just a place to buy fruits and vegetables but a gathering place where people like Oma would come have a cup of coffee and talk to us about all sorts of different things. She was a German lady and one of our best customers when it came to buying prune plums.Īs September began, she’d start searching for those plums so she could make her prune plum cakes, which were absolutely delicious and which she’d always bring to our family as soon as she made them. Back when I was a young boy, and my family had our produce store in North Jersey, we had a customer that my mother and father called Oma.

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