North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Charles Paradise <machelp@attglobal.net>]

Lon,
Do you see the beach plum juice being used straight for fruit wine? 
Or being mixed with something else like grape?  [Perhaps Cayuga?] 
If beach plum were used for wine, would it be necessary to juice it with
complete separation from the pulp, or could the pulp be fermented as a
mass?
Confirmed - the beach plum jam is exemplary - but manufacturers tend
to substitute damson and other plums.
Charlie Paradise
Massachusetts/zone 5

"Lon J. Rombough" wrote:

>From what  I have seen of the beach plum, it should make really good jam, and some of the types have enough color, tartness and astringency to make decent fruit wine.  The trees have enough good traits (resistance to salt water, late blooming, dwarfing) to make them valuable in breeding.
-Lon Rombough

 
From: Charles Paradise <machelp@attglobal.net>
Reply-To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Wed, 04 Sep 2002 10:07:39 -0500
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] beach plums

John,
The first year or two of flowering, the beach plums don't set fruit that year.  After a year or
two of flowering, then they begin to set fruit.
Yes, two of us here in new england have grown beach plum away from the coast.
It's fine to write an article in a magazine talking about a niche crop, but if its to be grown
commercially then an identifiable, reliable outlet for the fruit needs to be confirmed.  The
fruit is almost always very tart and I doubt it would find favor with most people as an out of
the hand fruit, and besides it is small compared with hand fruit.  I like tart [I think Gala and
Ginger Gold apples sweetness is just appalling] but the public likes sweet.
Charlie Paradise
Massachusetts/zone 5

John Van Hazinga wrote:

> The currant issue of  Farming (The Journal of Northeast Agriculture)  has an
> article on beach plums as a developing niche market in northeast coastal
> areas.  I have a set of three year old trees planted in two locations-- one
> on a rich clay soil in Vermont and the other  a gravel soil  at my sisters
> nearby in southern NH that have blossomed but not set fruit.  I am wondering
> if any growers have had success  with beach plums away from the coast.   JVH

> south central  NH where finally seasonably cool.