Beach Plums are a sign that summer on Nantucket will soon ease into autumn. These deep purple (and if you are lucky, gold) fruits are ripening all across the island. They make wonderful jelly—or if a batch doesn’t set quite right, sauce for meats or even to pour over ice cream. Too hot this August to stand over a stove for long enough to make jelly? You can make juice from your beach plum harvest and freeze that until the weather is cool enough to make jelly.