Farmer Michael Vasey, left, checks the look and feel of plums—destined to become prunes—in the orchard at Lindauer River Ranch. The fruit is shaken off the trees during harvest, above, and then washed, right.
Elsewhere, “it’s just a delicious fruit,” he said. “It’s also a great snack for kids to keep them away from candy.” He notes that he has trouble finding large packages of prunes in grocery stores. “I would love to see more people using prunes, to see them more in markets. I hope more people will come to understand it’s a good, yummy fruit.” Plums become prunes One person who does understand is Michael Vasey. He not only eats prunes almost every day, he also grows them on his 400-acre orchard in Red Bluff. Lindauer River Ranch is among the California farms that grow 99% of the prunes in the United States and 40% of the entire world’s supply. A good prune starts with the right plum, Vasey said. Currently, the super-sweet Improved French variety is the only one commercially available. “You need a lot of sugar for drying,” Vasey said. These plums are typically harvested when they are between 24% and 30% sugar. “Whereas, if you bought a big round plum in the store for eating fresh, it might be 18% sugar.” As it gets close to harvest time in August and
Keeping it real Keeping the cuisine authentically Moroccan is important to Bakhouya. His mother, Rita Griyache, opened the eatery in 2009. “She’s the one who taught us how to cook,” he said. With no prior chef experience but with a passion for preparing the meals of his heritage, he eventually started working part-time at the restaurant. “I’m a finance guy…but I ended up loving cooking and got tired of office work and sitting behind a desk all the time,” he said. So, he took over about two years ago and runs the restaurant with his business partner, Mustapha Elmountasir. Right after they opened, most customers were from San Francisco’s small Moroccan community, but that soon changed. “Now, I would say only about 30% are Arabs or Moroccans,” Bakhouya said. Among his regulars are U.S.-born diners pleasantly surprised by how much they enjoy what prunes bring to the entrées. Bakhouya says it’s a shame more people don’t give prunes the appreciation they deserve—beyond just acknowledging their benefits for digestion. “I don’t get it. That’s just an American thing.”
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