North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

I have occasionally encountered the use of "prunes" to designate fresh 
plums suitable for drying into prunes. I think it was usually in 
journalism or nursery descriptions aimed at the general public.

Doug Woodard
St. Catahrines, Ontario, Canada


Alan Haigh wrote:
> I find the fact that several dictionaries include a definition of prunes 
> as plums that can be dried surprising.  My understanding of the 
> definition of prunes as exclusively plums that have been dried does not 
> come simply from local usage but from extensive reading of literature 
> related to commercial fruit growing where I have no memory of 
> encountering this usage.  I have not encountered this usage in any of 
> the many catalogues of commercial and home orchard nurseries that I 
> frequently read.  How about other members?  I don't quite trust my 
> memory on this. I'm much more interested in the usage and understanding 
> of people who are knowledgeable about fruit than the general 
> population.  Dictionaries, of course, are not.