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Cherry Plums?
I have come to this forum to identify those self same red plums. I visited my mother near Norwich a couple of days ago and on a piece of council owned land beside her bungalow was a red leaf tree (looked like a copper beech from a distance) bearing huge amounts of red round plum like fruits exactly the same as those eating plums you buy in Tesco/Sainsbury etc. She mentioned that she had been visited by a couple of Jehovah Witnesses the day before and seen them picking and eating the fruit. She was curious to know what the fruit was and asked me to go and look. Prunus of some sort undoubtedly. Lots of windfalls and many wasp eaten. I picked and cut open one of the golf ball sized fruits. Dark red skin with yellow flesh inside and an almond shaped pip so typical of plums (not a cherry stone). Emboldened by two assumptions ( firstly the council were unlikely to plant poisonous fruit trees in a public place and secondly others had been seen to eat them, albeit with unknown consequences) I ventured to taste them. They were sweet and juicy....just like the ones I buy from the supermarket!!! I quickly organised a strong bag and picked about 20 lbs without any noticeable impact on the tree. Although they are definitely eating plums I decided to cook them and freeze them for use in crumbles. With just half a cup of water in the bottom of a big stew pot, to prevent burning, they quickly turned to skinless mushy lumps that I tediously but easily destoned. Unlike Victorias, it was not possible to halve and destone them before cooking. After cooking I had equal quantities of fruit mush and plum juice. I love plum juice (beware of it's laxative properties) and was surprised to find the decanted juice quite tart. I assume this acidic quality would be ideal for jam making. I ate several fruits yesterday and am still here to write this questing note and drank half a glass of juice about 6 hours ago with no ill effects. I would still like to find out the variety for interest but I am definitely now searching www to find out how to grow my own tree from the pips.
I have come to this forum to identify those self same red plums. I visited my mother near Norwich a couple of days ago and on a piece of council owned land beside her bungalow was a red leaf tree (looked like a copper beech from a distance) bearing huge amounts of red round plum like fruits exactly the same as those eating plums you buy in Tesco/Sainsbury etc. She mentioned that she had been visited by a couple of Jehovah Witnesses the day before and seen them picking and eating the fruit. She was curious to know what the fruit was and asked me to go and look. Prunus of some sort undoubtedly. Lots of windfalls and many wasp eaten. I picked and cut open one of the golf ball sized fruits. Dark red skin with yellow flesh inside and an almond shaped pip so typical of plums (not a cherry stone). Emboldened by two assumptions ( firstly the council were unlikely to plant poisonous fruit trees in a public place and secondly others had been seen to eat them, albeit with unknown consequences) I ventured to taste them. They were sweet and juicy....just like the ones I buy from the supermarket!!! I quickly organised a strong bag and picked about 20 lbs without any noticeable impact on the tree. Although they are definitely eating plums I decided to cook them and freeze them for use in crumbles. With just half a cup of water in the bottom of a big stew pot, to prevent burning, they quickly turned to skinless mushy lumps that I tediously but easily destoned. Unlike Victorias, it was not possible to halve and destone them before cooking. After cooking I had equal quantities of fruit mush and plum juice. I love plum juice (beware of it's laxative properties) and was surprised to find the decanted juice quite tart. I assume this acidic quality would be ideal for jam making. I ate several fruits yesterday and am still here to write this questing note and drank half a glass of juice about 6 hours ago with no ill effects. I would still like to find out the variety for interest but I am definitely now searching www to find out how to grow my own tree from the pips.
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