Plum crazy

Every branch of the plum tree is sagging down with fruit. We've never seen so many plums-- it must be that lucky combination of good spring pollination followed another hot summer. I never water, spray or fertilize this tree and gave up winter pruning a few years ago because it was too much work. Leaving things well enough alone is sometimes the secret of success.

Some of the branches were hanging down on the other side of our fence, and we had to cut them back today.  The plums aren't even ripe yet, but they were causing a feeding frenzy on the busy sidewalk in front of our house. What is it about fruit trees, that makes people go crazy over the "free" fruit?  Who cares if folks snitch a few as they walk by with their dogs (we've all done that) but teenagers climb on the fragile old fence and break the higher branches off. 

And not just kids. I came home from the grocery store this morning, and a strange man was on a stepladder filling a big tub. He looked pretty guilty when I drove up, but got defensive and said he didn't think we would "mind." He drove off in a car with his ladder, so I know he wasn't a nearby neighbor.

Sigh.  It isn't easy anymore,  keeping a little private garden corner in an urban village.  West Seattle has changed so much, and not for the better I'm afraid. Well, hopefully no one will be brazen enough to sneak into the yard and steal the best ones I plan to use for chutney. 

I'm happy to share with neighbors, really.  These came off just the branches we cut away from the sidewalk. A few were ripe and I made John plum kuchen.  I recently cleaned out the downstairs storage cabinets so I could find my kitchen things, but then I couldn't find where I put my tart pans.

I used the pizza pan instead. I love this simple recipe and make it every year.  Probably all you have to do is look at the August blog for the last 5 years to find the recipe, I'm becoming so repetitious.

It's a plain cake, but looks pretty when you sprinkle it with powdered sugar. And put vanilla ice cream on top.