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A Bite of Yellow

I’ve never met a plum I didn’t like, but the yellow are my favorites. They remind me of a Danish plum sort called reinekloder. They have the same contrast of a very tart skin and a sweet flesh – wait, that sounded a bit cannibalistic – albeit a bit more watery than the Danish variety.

These little globes of sunshine are only available for about a month every summer. I miss them in the depths of winter and start looking forward to them before the height of summer. I feel about these yellow plums the way I feel about Ontario strawberries, but the strawberries now last from June well into September.

I had a bag of four yellow plums in my fridge for while and was spacing them out, wanting to extend this part of summer for as long as I could. It’s been almost a month since the season for yellow plums ended and earlier this week, I realized I need to be careful about how much slowly I eat them or they might go bad. By this morning, there were two left. Now there’s one.

I took the other out of the fridge, holding it in my left hand as I moved to the sink, the cold seeping through my skin. I rinsed it under the warm water, taking the chill of the fridge off. Watching the drops of water dew the yellow skin, stripes of ripe and more-ripe flesh visible underneath, I couldn’t feel my mouth gear up for the joy that is to come. I leaned in over the sink and took the first bite.

I feel the give of skin under my teeth with its accompanying tart flavour. Past the skin, I sink into the inside of the plum and the inside sinks into me. An inside that is so ripe it is almost liquid. I take a bite and then another, the mix of the sweet mush and the almost-crunch of the tart skin making my taste buds slightly confused, but very happy. The plum is so ripe I can suck out the pit after only a few bites and then I eat the rest of it, juices dripping down my hand. It is like eating liquid sunshine.

This is happiness.

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5 Comments

  1. Carrie Beth on September 14, 2012 at 8:19 pm

    Sometimes it's the smallest moments and treasures in life that keep us going, We just have to remember to look for them. thank you for a beautiful little look into your day to help remind me. 🙂



  2. Anonymous on September 14, 2012 at 11:49 pm

    What a beautiful description. That sounds absolutely delicious.



  3. Diana Troldahl on September 15, 2012 at 1:56 am

    I need to direct my Oscar guy to read this.. he is a major plum lover.
    :-}



  4. Leslie on September 15, 2012 at 1:51 pm

    Ask people what they want out of life and they will tell you happiness, not realizing that happiness is exactly what you have described here – that singular, transendant moment of joy – fleeting and rare, to be sought for sure but not sustainable on a day in and day out basis. Contentment and fulfillment punctuated by happiness – now that is a life!
    And you, by the way, have quite a gift for description! Excellent writing and wonderful perception – I can taste your plum!



  5. Dave Hingsburger on September 16, 2012 at 9:47 am

    Those wonderful moments make it clear that life and love and flavour don't belong to the rich, or the famous, or those who walk rather than roll. Little wonderful moments can transform how we feel about almost everything. Wonderful, beautiful, post.