Plums

I've got questions about plums.

I love plums. And it seems like they've been pretty available until recently. But starting about six weeks ago, they weren't on display at our Whole Foods (Ashland). So I asked the produce guy, and he said, "I think we've got them in the back." He went back, and brought out several cases of nice fresh ones! (To put out, not just for me.)

Then on a subsequent visit, the same thing happened. No plums in the produce section, but plenty of fresh ones "in the back," which the produce guy that day was happy to bring forward for me, and to put out.

So, a pattern was developing. My first question is, why would a store stock produce "in the back" that it is not putting in the front? Isn't this a sure way for the produce to rot before being purchased?

I would guess that it was just an anomaly (i.e., they hadn't gotten around to putting out the plums yet, but intended to shortly) if it hadn't happened twice in a row.

(Or are plums at WF something exotic you have to know to ask for now, like off-menu items or the dishes that are only listed on the Chinese-language menus in Chinatown?)

On my third visit to Whole Foods in search of plums, there were none out front, and also none in the back, if the produce guy that day, a different and not as nice young man, was to be trusted. (He did look for me, despite not wanting to because of his sureness that he wouldn't find any.)

A couple days later (we're now talking about five days ago), I went to our Jewel on Ashland/Wellington, and no plums there, either.

But last night at Strack & Van Til, plums aplenty! A cornucopia of plums! So the problem is not that plums are "out of season." (As the first two Whole Foods experiences also demonstrated--there, they were only "out of season" in the front of the store, but not the back, as if the two were in different hemispheres.)

What's the deal with plums?

They ARE out of season, at least locally. They're a fall fruit (and a staple of my family's Rosh Hashana table.)

So maybe the slow boat from South America was just slower reaching your WF than the one docking at Jewel.

Diannie wrote:They ARE out of season, at least locally. They're a fall fruit (and a staple of my family's Rosh Hashana table.)

OK, but then, why did S & VT have plenty of them?

Also--aren't they always in season someplace? (If not in our hemisphere, then in the other one?) So shouldn't they be gettable all year 'round?

Not being argumentative--just trying to make sense of this for myself.

WF on Plums

As May has just begun, perhaps their supplier hadn't received a supply yet.

Diannie wrote:WF on Plums

Thanks for the link, Diannie. I never knew WF made that kind of info available.

But:

"The plum season extends from May through October with the Japanese varieties first on the market from May and peaking in August followed by the European varieties in the fall."

This doesn't explain how WF on Ashland had cases of fresh plums "in the back" (which they did) in March and April.

So, still confused.

Plums showed up again in the Ashland WF today, as well as the Canal/Roosevelt one. (I ended up in both, oddly enough.)

I mean, showed up as in "on display in the produce section." As opposed to the secret stash they inexplicably had in the back of the store in March and April when plums aren't in season.