About a plum

Purple at last, Aug 2018

When I was a kid, we moved to a house that had a very prolific plum tree which we all hated.  Variety unknown, it was a rather nondescript green fruit with a pinky-purple blush that littered the lawn with smelly, sticky messy, attracting wasps and bees and making it impossible to mow (one of my chores).  My mother made jam with it once, and it was the one we all avoided, until there was no jam left--that jam even moved house with us, as no one wanted it.  Not my mother's fault:  I place the blame squarely on those plums.

I also remember another house, a few blocks away from us, which had the most beautiful plum tree, a smaller specimen, with bright gold fruits like big drops of sunlight.  How I coveted those golden plums!  (It was the same with apples:  our own were small, green and wormy, whereas another neighbor's was loaded with gorgous red jewels.)

When I was picking out fruit trees for my own garden, starting several years ago, I was unsure if I wanted a plum:  my earlier experience made me hesitant.  I finally decided in favor when I found a stack of bare root fruit trees on special offer (I picked up the Williams pear and sweet Kordia cherry at the same time).  I rationalized that I could feed excess fruit to chickens.  And I could try my hand at plum cider.  If it really was a disaster, I could cut the tree down--it only cost me £4, after all.

This year I estimate we have around 100-120 plums.  Some of them have maggots, which I have never encountered in a plum before--but I'm not too bothered;  I split open the fruit and simply wash them out.  I may try grease bands over winter to try and prevent it in the future.  And have those excess plums gone to the chickens?

Actually, we like these plums.  Variety again unknown, they're deep purple with golden flesh (it was sold to me as an Opal, but the fruit doesn't match the description I've read for Opals).  I've made about a liter of jam this month, split between six small jars, and the rest have been eaten fresh.  The chickens have had a few, yes, but that's because we like to give them treats.  There's not quite enough for plum cider this year, but maybe next year.

I've said to the husband that after all these years I still covet those golden plums;  he thinks we might be at full capacity for plums--and fruit trees in general.  We'll see, I guess.