Greengages in New York City?
March 28, 2017 8:46 AM
We recently received a fruit basket that contained a container of what I now know were greengages. I had never seen them before, and now we want more. We go to Fairway on the Upper West Side regularly and have never run across them, and I've never spotted them in Whole Foods either. Hoping someone has seen them either recently or regularly, ideally in Manhattan? Dean and DeLuca? Chinatown?
We are so far out of plum season at the moment that they may be difficult find. I'm pretty sure I've seen them at the Saturday Union Square Greenmarket. If you haven't already done so it is worth asking at Fairway and Citarella if they will carry them. Maybe Eli's Vinegar Factory on the UES has them?
posted by plastic_animals at 11:48 AM on March 28, 2017
posted by plastic_animals at 11:48 AM on March 28, 2017
I think this is a question for late August/early September, not for now. Greengages, also known as Reine Claudes, are notoriously delicate and do not ship well. This means that finding them out of season (i.e., shipped in from somewhere far away, will be next to impossible. If anyone near you has them, they'll be selling them only during their short season. If anyone is selling them now they would have been picked so unripe that there's no way they'll be good.
If you really have a craving, it's pretty easy to find reine claude jam in France, I bet with some quick googling you can get some shipped to you. I have a couple jars sitting in my pantry right now.
If you really really have a craving, the southwest of France (think Lot et Garonne and the Gers) are known for their reine claudes. You can plan your next vacation for here, mid to end of August, and have as many as you want! I'll even share if you come - a family friend knows i like them and often drops off a box of a hundred or more, which we can never finish before they go bad.
posted by ohio at 1:34 PM on March 28, 2017
If you really have a craving, it's pretty easy to find reine claude jam in France, I bet with some quick googling you can get some shipped to you. I have a couple jars sitting in my pantry right now.
If you really really have a craving, the southwest of France (think Lot et Garonne and the Gers) are known for their reine claudes. You can plan your next vacation for here, mid to end of August, and have as many as you want! I'll even share if you come - a family friend knows i like them and often drops off a box of a hundred or more, which we can never finish before they go bad.
posted by ohio at 1:34 PM on March 28, 2017
You want to look in a Persian market. Probably the world's most voracious consumers of greengages, you will find veritable mountains of them there when they come in season.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 2:52 PM on March 28, 2017
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 2:52 PM on March 28, 2017
Any plum you received in March was imported from the Southern Hemisphere. You might try contacting Fruits from Chile with this question to try to identify the variety. If you know when you received the basket, it might be possible to pin down the name, though getting more of it now is unlikely.
As ohio says, what's produced domestically is only available in the summertime. The trouble with searching out stone fruit is that each variety comes ripe in about a ten-day window once a year and the fruit can't be stored like apples and oranges can. (Here's a plum maturity chart with dates from a major nursery in California.)
I'm sorry to say that when I was working for the organization that supported California peach, plum, and nectarine growers a decade ago (it no longer exists), greengages had declined to the point that they were effectively no longer commercially produced in the U.S. That could certainly have changed in the last ten years with increased interest in special varieties. But there are other green varieties of plum out there; Emerald Beaut was a particular favorite of mine when I was in CA.
If you want to find domestic growers of green plums, you could try contacting the CFFA in California and WSFC in Washington State, but I don't know how much information they gather on who grows what variety.
posted by jocelmeow at 9:05 AM on April 12, 2017
As ohio says, what's produced domestically is only available in the summertime. The trouble with searching out stone fruit is that each variety comes ripe in about a ten-day window once a year and the fruit can't be stored like apples and oranges can. (Here's a plum maturity chart with dates from a major nursery in California.)
I'm sorry to say that when I was working for the organization that supported California peach, plum, and nectarine growers a decade ago (it no longer exists), greengages had declined to the point that they were effectively no longer commercially produced in the U.S. That could certainly have changed in the last ten years with increased interest in special varieties. But there are other green varieties of plum out there; Emerald Beaut was a particular favorite of mine when I was in CA.
If you want to find domestic growers of green plums, you could try contacting the CFFA in California and WSFC in Washington State, but I don't know how much information they gather on who grows what variety.
posted by jocelmeow at 9:05 AM on April 12, 2017
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posted by brujita at 10:11 AM on March 28, 2017