What do you love?

I'm having two of my favourite things for lunch today: baked beans and Victoria plums. (If that sounds a little odd, blame Weightwatchers; I blame them for most things including my bad moods and the hole in the ozone layer.)

Victoria plums are one the few fruits to still be (spilt infinitive! Apologies) seasonal, and a short season it is too. Blink twice and you miss it. In the shop last Saturday I waved the label from the shelf under the eye of the shop assistant. 'It says Victorias; where are they?'
'Sorry, they're sold out, but we have Reeves, they're very similar, in fact, I prefer them to Victorias.'

Led on thus, I bought some; they're okay but they're not Victorias.

Then, on the shelf in Sainsburys, there they were. Red and peachy and golden and amber, mmmm. That'll do for me.

I wonder if it's the fact that they're only available for such a short period that makes them so delectable. Strawberries even at the height of summer these days don't have the same magic about them that they did when I was a child.

In an article I read it said that many people under the age of 15 have never tasted a ripe native plum. And that 'today the number (of Victorias) on sale represents a mere twentieth of the bumper crops that we used to know only a generation ago.' Spring is getting earlier and earlier so the trees blossom earlier, making them particularly vulnerable to late frosts.

It would be a tragedy if the Victoria were to die out. There is no other plum worth eating.

Baked Beans, on the other hand, are unlikely to die out. A staggering 1.5 million cans of them are eaten in Britain every day. And as we all know, Beanz meanz Heinz. The distinctive tin was even chosen as one of the products that best represents Britain to go in a time capsule for London's Business Design Centre.

I'm with the majority on this: they have to be Heinz and whether they're on toast, with bangers and mash, or cold straight from the tin, umm um.

I wonder if the Queen ever sits in front of the television with a tray on her lap, and a plate of baked beans on toast.