Step away from my Plumcot

I received a text from my niece last week – “Uncle Matt – at the store, OK…what the hell is a plumcot? LOL” 

I replied ” I don’t know, but there is surely an ointment for it in aisle 3″.

Ok my sophomoric readers..let’s just get it over with right now.

These plumy new fruits sound more like naughty bits than, well, fruit. And even though fruit is technically “naughty bits’ as far a plants are concerned, these new funny sounding fruits showing up at markets during high summer, are worth checking out – and here’s why: They are yummy.

I want to convince you to try some velvety Peacotum, juicy plumcots, succulent Pluots, Dinosaur Balls, Colorcots, Pleury (OK, maybe this is a STD?), and Plucots. All are worth the extra price, and far superior to ordinary tasteless plums.

But what are they, exactly? And what’s up with the funny names?  And for that matter, why are they so damn expensive? Do I really want to pay a dollar for a plum?  Sure, we’ve all
balked at the prices for these fruit, with some selling for $2.99 and $3.00 pound, but just promise me one thing – before you pass on Plumco due to its price, try one, and try one now in early September, and not in January when they are being flown in from Chile. Eat them when they are in high season, when they are ripe and sweet as honey. In fact, try a few – buy a couple of pluots, or plum cots,  or even a new Aprium – for they are so incredibly flavorful and
juicy, that they just might change your mind.

An Aprium has a super sweet flavor and a golden orange interior, hinting to its Apricot roots.

On a recent taste test, we discovered this entire new world of fruit.  Joe and I bought a couple of each variety this past weekend, and we ended up fighting ( I mean really fighting with yelling and all) about who should get the remaining few which we did not eat at the original taste test ( Joe even hid a couple so I could not find them because he said that he paid for them! Bastard.). We began by cutting up a selection of these velvety, plump fruit and placed them on a plate in a mock taste test. “Ooo, taste that
one” and Oh My Gosh, wait until you taste this one. We are hooked, and forever dishing out a few extra dollars for these late summer treats.

Before you all start freaking out with worries about genetic
engineering or Frankenfruit, just relax. These are not Frankenfruit, but rather just ‘complex hybrids’.  I mean, Luther Burbank bred the first Plum Apricot more than a hundred years ago.  No Jellyfish genes have been added, these are the result of clever breeding within the genus Prunus. Today, a corporation-  a company named Zaiger Genetics (I know- bad name: Can you say Jurassic Park?)  owns the trademark for Pluot and for many of these fruit varieties, yet really, I’m OK with all of this. After all, they are the investors and the researchers who have invested millions of dollars and hours of  research into creating these tasty hybrids.  They should own the profits. It’s a business. 

If I lived in California, or Oregon, I could grow many of these varieties, but I fear most are not hardy here in New England. At least, not yet.

Regardless of
the fancy, catchy or dirty marketing names and those icky trademarks, with labels and catchy brand names complete with circle R’s or TM’s and patent numbers, this is all just part of the business side of breeding plants today.  As time goes on, with a global market and millions of humans consuming produce, such ownership to intellectual properties will need to be tolerated if we are ever to expect improvements with our food sources – remember, many of these fruit are grown organically today. The result of science entering the breeding process has improved our grapes, cherries, plums and peached. So unlike tomatoes and the whole heirloom trend, smart consumers should know the difference with some crop research. All I know is this –  the experience of eating a meh meh a plum has been redefined, in fact, it’s been significantly enhanced.

Mom nature knows these plant as simply as crosses  between a few closely related species, like Prunus armeniaca, Prunus salicina and Prunus persica, as well as their related older named selection. These are the plants which we originally knew as Apricots, plums and cherries. No one at
Whole Foods is going to be interested in 
a sticky label that says Prunus armeniaca x runus persica var.
nucipersica on it. So we are stuck with‘Dinosaur Egg®’, it is a name that sells.

 Hybirdists simple (
or not so simple, hence the ‘complex part) developed these varieties by crossing
a plum with an apricot. Botanists call these crosses Interspecific, which only
means that they are crossing two different, yet closely related species
together, often within the same genus, in this case, Prunus, 

What makes them ‘complex’ is that these are often not just
50/50 percent crosses, but more complex, which takes much more research and testing,
so that breeders can take three or four generations to make a more flavorful
plant. The result it that many of these hybrids have 70 percent apricot, and 30
percent plum, resulting in amazing flavor and textural differences. Mother
nature and bees can do the same thing, but it just takes time.

We, the consumer, should rejoice and support these ‘new’
fruits, as they are enormous improvements over most any older varieties, which
again, we should remember, we also 
essentially cross bred in for hundreds of years, with humans – Luther
Burbank even bred some pluot crosses. For hundreds if not thousands of years,
humans made their own selections, passing on their favorite varieties which
eventually became those trees which we know as prune plums, or older named
varieties. Sometimes, an heirloom just is not a good thing, and so it is with
plums.

At any good market this late summer, there are many
varieties of these interspecific plum and apricot crosses being tested. Try a
few. Compare them to your older varieties, and let me know what you think. Do a
taste test with your kids. Buy one of each variety ( some stores carry nearly a
dozen varieties of both new and old varieties of plums), slice them up, make
card with the varietal names on them, and do your own taste test. I assure
you, the result may be that you end up buying more expensive fruit, but the
quality of these new varieties is undeniably far superior to older ones.

According to an article written by  Patricia Tanumihardja on NRP.org, “more than
20 varieties of pluots have been developed by Zaiger Genetics” and new
varieties are being introduced every year. Be sure to start your research on the NPR page, and the Zaiger site, and work your way from there.

There is much demand for these new and improved hybrid
fruits, and in fact, a majority of plums that you are already eating, or buying
at your local market are in fact pluots. Not surprisingly, many stores are not
labeling them as they know many customers arent’ familiar with them.