it’s taken us four months to work out
what type of fruit our tree will bear
they will be greengage plums
they’re not ripe yet so I bought one at the supermarket
to see what they will taste like
very tart and biting just under the skin
like a couple after a row
I imagine myself making jam or roasting them with
spice and think about abundance
I research fruit nets until I found out fruit bats die
because their mothers can’t get back inside
I roast the plums and fill up empty jars
they don’t fit in the fridge so I start to give them away
a group of fruit bats migrate further north where there are more trees
and less nets
I’m tasting the preserved plums. they’re not quite what I had expected
and in fact, terrible
I’m surrounded by buckets and baskets of pale green fruit
the kitchen ferments on a hot afternoon
the bats can’t find a tree without nets or pesticides
so they start to malnourish
I take all the plums and place them in the landfill bin. I keep only one jar of the first jam I made.
it was the sweetest and best-tasting of the jams.
it takes me six months to eat it because I don’t eat much
jam these are the greengage plums in preston
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