North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Title: Re: [NAFEX] beach plums

I made plum wine once and had to add sugar, which I'm sure would be needed with beach plums.   No reason you couldn't add other juice, if it had enough sugar to bring the total up to something decent.  Aronia comes to mind, as it gets high sugar.   Also, the wine I made was so cloudy I'm sure it would have been better with pectinase to break a lot of that down.  
The problem I see with the existing beach plums is the high ratio of seed to flesh.  Yields would be low and it would take a lot of work to extract enough pulp.  However, I have seen what seem to be natural hybrids of beach plums with other species that greatly increased the fruit size, so perhaps that would be the way to go.
=Lon Rombough
>
Grapes, writing, consulting, more, plus word on The Grape Grower at http://www.bunchgrapes.com

From: Charles Paradise <machelp@attglobal.net>
> Reply-To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Wed, 04 Sep 2002 21:12:00 -0500
> To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] beach plums

> 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.
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