FESTIVAL WEEKEND

“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”                                          Sylvia Plath

Summer feels official over. In the town I live in, every September for the past twenty years we have held an art's festival. Artists and musicians as well as other vendors from all over the country come to our town and entertain us all weekend with art, music, food, and beer. When it's over, fall seems to loom closer. As my friend and I sat and listened to the last band totally entertain the crowd with fabulous old time rock n' roll on Sunday afternoon, we commented on this festival really marking the end of summer. Soon the wind will blow and the weather will be cooler. But for that moment we were all sitting in the perfect 70 degree sunny weather enjoying the band, eating festival food, and basking in the last moments of summer - as if we were still kids.



The end of summer also means that gardens are brimming with produce, and my friends with gardens have bestowed me with tomatoes, apples and most recently some lovely plums.

At first I thought I would make some plum jam, but time just got away from me with the festival and hanging out with friends and grandkids, so instead, on Saturday afternoon, I made a wonderful plum tart (and had enough plums leftover to freeze for another one).

I made my tart from a Martha Stewart recipe Rustic Plum Tart. Her recipe calls for 1-1/2 pounds of red plums. The plums I had were prune plums, but that didn't seem to make a difference. She also uses fine yellow cornmeal in the crust - don't omit this - it made the crust soooo delicious!

Washed plums waiting to go in the tart

Because this was a rustic tart it went together without much fuss. I simply washed the plums and cut them in half and in half again. Taking out the pit of course. I didn't peal them.

Tart on parchment ready to go in the oven

I baked the tart on a pizza pan that I lined with aluminum foil and then put the tart on top of a piece of parchment - this gave me a pan that was completely clean when I was finished baking my tart. A bonus.

Notice the beautiful green color of these plums - with their purple skins and the golden color of the dough this made a pretty tart going into the oven.

After just 45 minutes in the oven it came out even more beautiful, all bubbly and golden brown - and it was delicious. Yes it is completely gone. All gone by Sunday as a matter of fact.

Hot from the oven

I will definitely be making this again - it was nice to have some to share - I gave a few pieces to the neighbor who brought me the plums.

Happy end of summer everyone! Make something delicious to celebrate all the wonderful fruits and vegetables that are available this time of year.