stone fruit season
A long time ago, our landlords planted two plum trees, both of which are sad and sickly but nonetheless yield a glut of fruit. They are freestone European plums, best suited for drying and baking, with greenish flesh and tart skin.
August in my part of the world is when I begin longing for the coolness of autumn, even as the sun sets earlier each week than the last. Evenings evoke an undercurrent of panic at the oncoming darkness, while the days bring winds too warm to be refreshing. The trees' overwhelming lushness demands I overcome my lethargy and get to work or slip on a boozy mess when I go down the stairs. Not to mention the yellowjackets.
Did you know that the Swedish word for the dog days of summer is rötmånaden, or "rot month?"
But all one can do is enjoy the bounty while it's here. As I lack a dehydrator and am not in need of an industrial quantity of prunes, I'm always in search of new recipes for baked goods using summer fruits. Though there are savoury applications, I remain loyal to the pairing of caramelized sugar with the plum's surprising astringency. They're so sticky against your fingers when sliced that their tartness, even out of the oven, shocks me.
While there are other recipes I gravitate to later in the month, as transitional dishes to fall, we're not there yet, so my plum dessert of choice is platz--a Mennonite coffee cake that comes together with little effort. The small batch rhubarb platz recipe from the Farmer's Daughter blog is the best I've tried; any temperate spring or summer fruit can be substituted for rhubarb.
I recommend serving platz with a splash of heavy cream or dollop of clotted cream, if you enjoy that sort of thing.
Song of the week: Blue Chalk by Just Mustard
Some years ago, I reached a saturation point with middling examples of the 2010s-2020s British post-punk revival formula. As a result, I let some great artists pass unappreciated. Until recently, Just Mustard was one of them. Particularly regrettable as they aren't even British.
Just Mustard are a five-piece from Dundalk, Ireland, only adjacent to the Windmill scene in a broad geographical sense. They are also post-punk only in the sense that all darkwave guitar bands can be described this way. If it weren't for my doltishness, I could have been listening to their excellent 2022 album Heart Under for ages!
Both of the band's currently released LPs--a third is on its way in October--were self-produced, and the band spoke of wanting Heart Under "to feel like the experience of driving through a tunnel with the windows down." The guitar shimmers and squeals, while Katie Ball's vox is rich yet remote. This has more than a little doomgaze DNA, or perhaps it's convergent evolution.
I'm fond of "Blue Chalk" for its uneasy industrial heartbeat, reminiscent of Akira Yamaoka's soundtrack to Silent Hill 2. Diaphanous and heavy.
AMERICAN FUJO is looking for pitches for essays with a quick turnaround to round out what’s currently represented within the volume, particularly related to the intersections of fandom and transness with race, class, and global capitalism. Previously written work also accepted. You have until Monday, August 18th to get in touch; apply within, or pass along to friends and comrades.
You can also still preorder a copy of the volume via a late pledge on Kickstarter! My piece on fujo homoeroticism is complete and I think it's a ton of fun.