Pluot Swirl

'Way back when, I took a jam making class from the delightful June Taylor. In that class, we prepped Dapple Dandy pluots for the pot and each of us got a jar of the jam we had made to take home. Recently, I opened my jar and have been enjoying the heck out of it on toast and muffins. It is ever so slightly sweet, chunky, fruity and a beautiful shade of dark rose. Lovely stuff.

The other morning, just back from Connecticut, I was looking in my nearly-empty fridge for something to make for breakfast; I found a small, half full tub of plain Greek yogurt and, as I turned to close the door, spied the jar of pluot jam.

Now, I detest commercial yogurt with jam in it; all the tartness of the yogurt gets buried in the sicky-sweet of the jam. I was tired, too, of yogurt itself, having consumed gallons of the stuff all winter on a mysterious yogurt binge - I think my bones were craving calcium. Anyway, I thought perhaps June's jam might improve it enough to finish off that last bit before it grew fur. And, boy oh boy, was I ever right! I swirled a small dollop into the yogurt and had a splendid breakfast. Not only did it retain its tartness, it also gained sweet-tart fruity flavor and beautiful color from the pluots.

If you've never tried June Taylor's jams, made locally here in Berkeley, you are missing a treat. She uses a tiny fraction of the normal sugar, fresh organic fruit from growers she knows as friends (she hugs them when they bring in baskets of fruit), and a lifetime of experience to concoct delicious varieties. You can order online from her website, find her at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market in San Francisco and, occasionally, I see her jams in high-end food stores. Wherever you find them, grab a jar and swirl it into your yogurt or onto your toast - you're in for a treat!

And she didn't ask me to say so.