North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["MARIE ASHTON" <bwoodtx@verizon.net>]

There has been a lot of discussion of what constitutes a prune. Some very good definitions have been offered.

 

Historically, prunes were never separated from plums they were just called prune-plums to denote the fact that they had a high sugar content and could be sun-dried without fermenting. This was very important in the past as more modern drying methods were not available. Dr. Parmar is of course correct in that it takes a high sugar content for the fruit to be sun-dried without fermenting. If we just use the term prune-plum to denote any plum that has a high sugar content at maturity then no one should have a problem deciding what is considered a prune-plum. There are a number of prune-plums that have prune in their name to denote their high sugar content and sun-drying qualities such as German Prune, Italian Prune and the French Prune (Agen). Stanley is also considered a prune-plum but it is most often used for fresh eating, as another example.

 

Regards,

Richard Ashton

Oak Creek Orchard

Author of: Plums of North America

www.3mpub.com/ashton