Plums are the easiest stone
fruit to grow in England (peaches and apricots etc are more difficult,
we don't grow them although it is possible in favoured sites with much
care) When fully ripe they are utterly delicious. They have a short natural
season, need to be picked a few days before they are fully ripe and allowed
to ripen in store, or they will go squashy and bruised, if the birds and
wasps don't eat them all. We have had badgers climbing trees to get our
greengages (I'm not joking-we found their hair a metre and a half up the
tree and large amounts of plum stones in their excrement, which they abundantly
deposit in our orchard). The global plum trade selects varieties with tough
skins and long shelf life or they would never survive the journey from
South Africa. California etc. The real flavour of the best plums should
be enjoyed fresh, ripe and locally grown in season. It is wrong in our
view to expect to eat fresh plums out of season, they freeze OK for puddings, can be bottled in syrup and make lovely jam, sauce and chutney.
Plums also make very good aquavit/eau de vie/Slivovicz
when fermented and distilled although regrettably this is illegal in England
and other such overregulated countries. Spirit from plums,"eau de vie", is often used in France to preserve fruits such as greengages, figs and cherries etc which makes a lovely addition to winter fruit salads and the remaining liquor can be drunk, in small glasses with cries of delight. You can do this using bought in vodka rum or brandy, by a similar method to sloe or damson gin. It is a shame that small farmers are forbidden by instrusive laws to make a small amount of spirit from home grown plums for their personal use to avoid wasting gluts of overripe plums when they can't be got to market in time-in glut years everyone has a glut so the price drops.
Plums blossom early, sometimes too early. You need a week of settled mild weather at the right time or there will be a poor crop, however if pollination is successful there will likely be a large glut of fruit, which may break the branches if not thinned (see below). Because plums tend to glut, and neither travel nor keep, they are a dodgy prospect commercially. In a bad year-nothing, in a good year-you have a glut which you must sell quickly before they go off, and so do other growers. This puts us as small local apple growers in an ideal position to have a few plums (around 40 trees, we are increasing but won't go above 80 trees as this will yield the maximum crop we can sell locally and process during the time of ripeness) If they do well, we can shift perhaps £1,000 worth of lovely fruit through August before the main apple crops begin, in a bad year-well, tough, but we won't go bust as our main business is the more reliable apple. click for image.
The biology and history of cultivated plums is quite interesting-they are not as distinct a variety as the apple, being a bit of a blend of several distinct types of wild and cultivated fruits. H.V. Taylor in 'The Plums of England, (1948) wrote ..'..the origin of our cultivated plums is...most obscure.' Damsons are somewhat distinct from other plums and came originally from Damascus, where they had been cultivated from great antiquity. Sloes and Bullaces are sorts of small bitter wild plum, while the gages, as Taylor remarks, ..'differ (in growth) from that of the damsons and other plums, and appear intermediate between the two....possessed of a special flavour not present in either the damson or the domestica plums.' Like many other good plants, plums came from the middle east/Caucasus but there has been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, cross breeding and there is a lot less literature than there is for apples. So it's all a bit obscure. The comment is made in the introduction to the above book that the best varieties of plum are not the ones that are most often cultivated. The problem today is that with profit margins for top fruit slashed so thin, that such an unreliable source of income as the plum is not an intelligent investment-more money to be made from grazing ponies-so plums are generally unprofitable in today's market conditions and so may be hard to find.
We currently grow the following varieties and have planted 1 each of a few other varieties which haven't fruited yet. Blackmoor nursery of Liss, near Petersfield Hampshire have a good stock of plums with photos and descriptions on their website, our stock came from there and we were very happy with the quality and service.
Victoria The
best known plum, Lawrence Hills said '...so
good it risks being our only plum.' It is very well known, reliable,
and when fully ripe has a good but not outstanding flavour. Makes a fairly
big tree, prone to overcrop, and if branches break it can let in a disease
called silver leaf which can kill the tree. A good all round plum which
should probably be in every reasonably large home orchard. The thing to
do is thin the fruits out around May to leave one plum every 3 or 4 inches
of branch. This will look terrible at the time and you will have to force
yourself to cut out so many plums, but later when you (a) don't have broken
branches, and, (b) have a crop of plums the size of very large hen's eggs,
you will thank me for this advice. I have never overdone plum thinning
but often underdone it and regretted it when the branches broke. In 2004
all three main branches snapped off a mature tree, destroying the crop
and nearly killing the tree (although it has recovered). It is better to
have 10 kg of good plums and unbroken branches than broken branches and
20kg of unripe plums lying on the orchard floor and next year's crop wiped
out in the bud.
click for image.
Cambridge Gage Shy cropper, utterly delectable flavour. We have to grow at least 20kg of these in order for any to leave the orchard, it is quite possible to eat 20 or more at a sitting. When they are just ripe with a little crunch, they are merely very nice, but once they start turning yellow, they melt in the mouth. Of course by this stage they will not travel or keep as they are so packed with liquid fruit sugar and the skins are so soft. Ours did not crop at all for the first 5 years, then about 8 plums per tree, then a decent crop, then nothing, and then 2 good crops in a row. Next year there could easily be nothing again-or 30kg per tree, it's that unpredictable. The sugar levels are incredible-we had a couple of boxes that had gone too soft or were wasp damaged, so I put them in a fermenting vessel and poured some hot water over followed by some yeast. The specific gravity before adding any sugar was 40-enough to get an alcohol strength of around 6%. Although this is a tricky cropper and has a very short season, if I was limited to only a dozen trees in a private orchard, I think one would probably have to be Cambridge Gage because it is just so lovely. The greengages you see in the shop, mostly Italian, don't come close. In September 2004 cycling in Normandy I bought half a kilo (they call them Reine Claudes there) and although better than the imports we see in UK were nowhere near as good to eat as ours. Probably irrigated-boosts the weight, dilutes the flavour. But of course these particular plums, by the time they are truly ripe, have a shelf life of no more than a week maximum and less than that if they are handled at all roughly. So, even more than apples, if you want the truly sensuous taste experience of the finest fruit you will have to grow your own. click for image
Warwickshire Drooper At least we're fairly sure that's what it is. In our first house there were 2 old yellow plums, there were quite a few of these plums in local gardens leading to legends that the estate had been built on the site of an orchard. Much more likely someone came round hawking trees. Anyway, it was a reliable cropper and very tasty when ripe, so as it was growing on its own roots we took some suckers, which I later increased by grafting. It is quite prolific, ripens yellow and has quite a nice sweet flavour not without a touch of the gage flavour. It cooks and preserves well as well as eating raw. If picked unripe as it would have to be if we were transporting it any distance, it tasted OK but when ripened until it is almost soft and develops tiny red spots, it is meltingly delicious. This perfect state only lasts a few days, underlining the fact that plums for flavour should be grown on a small scale and eaten locally, once they are fully ripe they will not travel.
Merryweather Damson This is the largest of the plums known as Damsons, customers often ask if it is really a damson due to the size, but it does have the true damson flavour and will make good damson jam or gin. A reliable cropper (we have never had a crop failure) and because of its large size (for a damson) it is easier to process than the more usual Farleigh cluster Damson. When very ripe it can be eaten raw if you you like a sharp fruit. click for image
Opal We
planted 4 of these in 2003 as they are earlier than Victoria and we wanted
to extend the plum season by a few weeks, they are supposed to ripen in
July. We planted a few more last year where we took out the blackcurrants,
which we cannot sell for as much as the cost of picking them. This year,
2006, we had our first few ripe Opals, sorry no photo, they are indeed
ripe 3 full weeks before Victoria and have a very pleasant taste. I would recommend growing one of these as well as a Victoria, that way you
should get ripe plums over 5 or 6 weeks if you pick the trees over carefully.
Growing tips Plums
want good soil and full sun, although again it's amazing what you can get
away with. They don't want too much pruning-and it MUST be done early in
the growing season, say April or May. Do
not prune them in winter as disease may enter through wounds, and
do paint all pruning cuts with Arbrex or similar. Prune too little rather
than too much, and as per apples, the main thing is to clear out dead,
diseased and overcrowded wood with the saw and avoid too much fiddling
about with secateurs. Calcium is required, a bit of seaweed based fertiliser
and farmyard manure or compost mulch is beneficial. Perhaps the most important
thing is to thin out the fruits in
early to mid summer. remove any damaged or deformed ones first,
but if there is a heavy set you may have to remove as many as 4 out of
5 plums. If you fail to do this when it is necessary you will get broken
branches and small fruit.
There is a horrid little pink maggot that chews plums-there
is a pheremone trap you can buy and it will trap the males, we catch hundreds
this way. We spray too, and still a few plums get maggots. You can tell
these plums as they ripen early-pick. Cut them open, kill the maggot, and
cook, chutney or compost the plums depending on the level of damage. Pick
up and destroy fallen plums to interrupt the maggot's life cycle.
Most plums will ripen successionally, so once they start
getting ripe, pick the tree over every 2 days taking only the ripest fruit-you
can usually tell by the colour (you can with our varieties).
Aphids can be controlled with soapy water sprays or plant
based pesticides within organic regulations, but if you do nothing except
the above maggot control measures, you will probably be all right.
Plum jam
Plums make better
jam if slightly under ripe. Real jam is suitable fruit boiled with sugar, full stop.
Typical industrial jam with a few noble exceptions (hooray for Tiptree)
is water, Victoria makes good jam, but we find that greengage and
damson are tastier. Wash the plums and halve them using a sharp knife with
a short blade. Slice them open lengthways and remove the flesh in 2 halves
from the stone. Some may have maggots in if they were not sprayed efficiently,
cut the nasty bit out and use the rest. warm them very slowly in a heavy
saucepan stirring all the while with no added water, this will save energy
and time as any added water will have to be boiled off. Once the plums
have melted, add the sugar, stirring constantly. Listen to the radio or
a CD while you work, but on no account leave the stove for a minute-if
you have to go to the bathroom, remove the pan from the heat until you
return. To judge when ready, remove a specimen with a spoon and let cool
on a plate. When it has the right viscosity and taste once cooled, the
jam is ready. Bottle using a 500 ml Pyrex jug, better still if you can
obtain a jam funnel. Protect yourself form the hot jam, is is over 100
Centigrade and can cause burns of you get it on bare skin. Keep previously
used jars and their lids, wash carefully then warm in a low oven on a metal
tray. Fill the jars while still hot from the oven to within half a centimetre
of the tip, put the lids on loosely, then screw them down (holding jar
and lid with tea towels to avoid burning yourself) after 5 minutes, during
which time the air space and lid will have warmed through and become sterilised.
Use the same regime for chutney.
Plum chutney
Chutneys are spicy sauces which use up fruit from a glut
to make and preserve something tasty to accompany all kinds of food. Many
recipes exist, once you have understood the principles you can invent your
own recipes.
A basic chutney recipe involves boiling suitable
fruit (softer riper plums are better in my view) with sugar, vinegar, salt
and spice until it reaches the right consistency, then bottling in a sterile
manner. Most chutneys are said to improve with 3 months or more of storage.
Basically cut and stone the (ripe or over ripe) plums, melt in a heavy
pan watching and stirring constantly (don't add water unless you have to),
add sugar, spice and cider or wine vinegar and cook gently.
My spicy plum chutney
5kg of ripe plums
Melt the washed and halved plums (see above), add the
other ingredients, melting the sugar with much stirring to avoid sticking
and burning, and simmer gradually until it is set enough for you. Obviously
you may prefer less or more spice, make it hotter with chilli or Worcester
sauce, add raisins or sultanas, Bramley apple for a firmer consistency,
or add your own touches. Take a small sample now and then and let it cool
down on a saucer before testing it for flavour and consistency, adjust
as required. Bottle with care in sterile jars pre-heated in the oven, a
jam funnel is helpful, as is a one pint Pyrex jug, don't splash yourself
with hot sticky stuff as it will burn. Use undamaged lids or the
vinegar may corrode them during long storage.
Whether jam or chutney take
care not to burn it on the bottom of the pan
1.5 kg white sugar,
handful of ground allspice
100g of root ginger finely chopped
pinch of ground cloves
dessert spoonful of ground Sechuan pepper
500 ml cider vinegar
Damson gin is made in the same way as sloe gin. Place whole fruit in a wide mouthed bottle holding about 2 litres, fill it up with plums, then add a fifth of the plum's weight in white sugar, then fill up with gin. Some people also add some spice such as vanilla pods or essence, cloves or allspice. Cover and leave for 3 months. Strain off and bottle. Extract the remaining goodness in the left over plums by soaking in white wine or cider for a few weeks longer or else you will be throwing away a lot of flavour.