I just cooked down a pot full of
Mirabelles for plum butter. No sugar just plums, lovely sweet thick and
sticky.
Naomi
From:
nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Lon J. Rombough
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006
9:39 PM
To: NAFEX
Subject: [NAFEX] A plum worth
trying
I just had some fresh plums, picked this afternoon here in Oregon. The funny thing
is that most people have them, but never grow them.
I'm talking about Prunus insititia, the species that gave us the St. Julian
plum rootstocks. Buy a commercially produced plum and odds are very good the
rootstock is St. Julian, but few ever let the rootstock produce fruit.
I have a "White Bullace" that produces small, somewhat astringent
plums that look very much like a ripe green gage plum, rather yellowish white,
with a blush on them. They are slightly astringent, but very well flavored and
they hang a very long time on the tree. Mine have been ripe for probably two
months, but they are still good and several limbs are still covered solid with
them.
Used mostly for jam and preserves in Europe,
they are a very pleasant late season fruit for fresh eating, when the
astringency has mostly disappeared, and well worth growing. And if you get
tired of them, you can use them for rootstock.
I've eaten the fruit of St. Julian and it's similar, but doesn't hang like this
sort of late season variety.
-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.
