Featured Ingredient: Immature Fruit
Could immature peaches be just as delicious?
Have we lost our minds here at the Neighborhood Farmers Markets? Are we so desperate for summer fruit that we’re consuming it green? The answer is that while we are extremely excited to stuff our faces with sweet, juicy peaches and plums, we are also excited to pickle, sauté, and slice as a garnish the not-so-ripe iterations of these warm-weather favorites. And yes, it's a thing.
Unripe fruit is a common ingredient around the world. In Korea, immature plums, green plums, or maesil, are used to make maesil extract (Maesil-cheong), a sweetener often used instead of sugar for it’s deeper, more complex flavor. Leftover maesil extract is then used to make maesilju, a traditional Korean alcohol, and the leftover green plums, now fermented and tart, are enjoyed as a boozy pickle known as maesil-jangajji. Check out this recipe for the gift that keeps on giving from chef and cookbook author, Maangchi.
In the middle east, it is common to find immature fruit offered as-is or with a pinch of salt for snacking. In an article for The Atlantic, Journalist Joshua Hersh deep dove into the unripe fruit phenomenon in Beirut, Lebanon, where he was shocked to see people enjoying with relish unripe plums, apples, and even unripe almonds and chickpeas. After consulting with, Rami Zurayk, professor of Agriculture at American University Beirut, Hersh learned there hasn’t been much research done on the popularity of unripe fruit, but Zurayk did have a fascinating theory,
“‘By cultivating the fruit over the entirety of its life cycle, farmers are able to avoid market gluts and sell their product for a longer time, thus making more money.’ (Ramzi Ghosn, the co-owner and winemaker at Masaya, in the Bekaa Valley, told me that at Masaya there is a "green harvest" in the early spring. They use the unripe grapes to make sour grape molasses, and the remaining grapes acquire greater complexity from the reduced density on the vine.)”
How could anyone pass up the opportunity to explore yet another incredible ingredient of summer? Finding immature fruit for your experimentation can be hit or miss at the farmers markets, but we know that Tonnemakers at the University District, West Seattle, Capitol Hill and Columbia City farmers markets usually offers immature peaches, (delicious made into a relish or slaw!) Mair Farm- Taki offers green walnuts at the University District Farmers Market, often used for making nocino, an Italian liquor. It is always worth a shot asking any of our orchard farmers if they have a case or two available, including AG Family Farm, K&C Farms, Razy Orchard, Grouse Mountain Farm, Collins Family Orchards, and Martin Family Orchards.