North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

I have Japanese nursery catalogs that indicate that the plum used to make umeboshi is a special type of P. salicina, while other sources say P. mume is what is used.  The Japanese catalogs show a fruit that looks very much like a true Japanese plum, not like P. mume, which looks like a black apricot.   Guess you'd have to ask a Japanese person which is truly correct.  I do know people who have P. mume, though, and I've tasted the fruit.  Not terribly impressive.  Apparently, the color is a combination of the salt curing and the use of Perilla leaf (the Beefsteak plant you mentioned).  
To be really honest, from all I've read, it almost seems easier to go buy the finished project.  Darn things take a heck of a lot of work considering most people wouldn't use more than a quart or two of umeboshi in a year.
=Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
On Jun 22, 2005, at 6:03 PM, Doc Lisenby wrote:

A Japanese friend tried to describe to me how to make ume boshi (a salty red plum preserve).  She sent me a picture of the plum used and it is green when it is ready to use.  I searched the internet and found that  the scientific name is Prunus mume.Sieb. et zucc.  It was also called "Japanese Apricot". The red color is not a color of the plum, but  comes from the Beefsteak Plant leaves which are added during the preparation.  If anyone has any idea whether this plum is available in North America or knows any thing that would be helpful to me in identifying or obtaining a tree, I would be very grateful.
Doc Lisenby
Zone 7/8 
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