market score of the day: pluots

Sele and I headed to the Lake Merritt Farmers Market this morning with the expressed purpose of finding more things to can. We settled on pluots simply because they were so beautiful. I like the idea of pluots: plums and apricots put together, what's not to love? But I'm always disappointed with their taste. So I was scheming on what to add to pluot preserves to make them more appealing: Sele thought basil. I'm skeptical about this, but was willing to do purple sweet basil, just for aesthetic wonder. We sniffed the purple basil and decided against that idea. I'm still considering star anise - not really because I think the tastes would go together, but again solely for aesthetic reasons. I can picture the pink translucent flesh of the pluot along with the sharp angles of the star anise in the jar and it's so appealing. The spiced jam idea is inspired by my friend Rachel's mom, Mindy's recent batch of strawberry-cardamom jam, which got my wheels whirring. I couldn't quite bring myself to pay for strawberries and then not eat them fresh, so I'm working on a less expensive alternative with the pluots. We'll see what comes of it.
In other market-related news: heirloom tomatoes are still out in force and so fabulous. Here's Sele with some particularly great selections.