Plums

Plums belong to summer. All summer long, from June through September, you’ll find a dizzying variety of plums coming to maturity in our area. They arrive one after the other, with a grand finale of late-harvest Elephant Heart and super-sweet prune plums.

Plums fall into two major classifications: the Japanese plum, Prunus salicina, and the European plum, Prunus domesticus. The latter is destined for drying to become prunes; the former for eating fresh off the tree. Both make excellent jams and jellies.

Almost all plums produced for the fresh market today are Japanese-type plums, and, although a few varieties were introduced on the East Coast of the U.S. in the 1870s, it wasn’t until Luther Burbank successfully imported 12 healthy seedlings from Japan in 1885 and started propagating and breeding Japanese plums at his Santa Rosa nursery that they became an important Californian, and American, fruit.

Burbank also played a role in the development of the European prune plum industry in California, improving the original petit pruneau d’Agen introduced from France to California in 1856 by the pioneer nurseryman Louis Pellier; to his San Jose nursery. The great majority of California prune plum production is still based on the ‘Improved Agen’ variety.

Prune plums are dark purple, a smallish oval, with amber flesh, and very sweet. When they come into ripeness in late summer, some make their way to the fresh market. I have neighbors with orchards of these plums, and each year they give me some that I use for tarts and clafoutis.

Among the European prune types is the Damson plum, with dark bluish skin, amber flesh and a deliciously tart-sweet taste. They are rare to find in the market, but—like other plums, both Japanese and European—they thrive in California backyards. Damsons are especially prized for jam-making. My Damson plum tree heavily flowered this year, and I’m expecting my first harvest this September—if I can keep the birds away.

Today, there are about 100 plum varieties in commercial production, including one from Burbank’s very first shipment, which he named the Satsuma, with greenish skin splotched dark red, red flesh and a flavor balanced between sweet and tart. Perhaps the most popular of all the plums Burbank developed— and he developed and named more than 100 varieties—is the Santa Rosa plum, which was released in 1906. Its red-purple skin and yellow flesh combine to make a fruit that is balanced between sweet and tart, like the Satsuma.

My personal favorite, Elephant Heart, was also developed by Burbank, but not released until 1929, three years after his death. It’s a large, sweet plum with hazy purple skin, almost grayish, and its flesh is dark, ruby-red.

One thing I like to do over the span of summer is to make a few jars of jam from each of four or five different Japanese plum varieties. Each has its own flavor and color. Fingers crossed I’ll add Damson plum jam to the collection this year.

I also find the Japanese plums make excellent cobblers and galettes, each dish being a little different depending on the variety of plum used. Another delicious thing to do with plums is to pit them and then roast them with olive oil and sugar. These may be served either on their own or mixed with other summer fruits like peaches and figs.