On Jul 23, 3:00*pm, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
Dave Baker wrote:
This pic looks as close to the fruit on my tree as I can find online.

http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/greengage.jpg

Looking more closely at some I've just picked there is actually a hint of a
crease on each fruit but it's little more than a thin line running down one
side rather than an indentation.

If they are small with not much flesh, its almost certain you have a
variety of mirabelle.

http://graphicleftovers.com/graphic/...irabelle-plum/

The French make wonderful tarts with them. They are generally not
regarded as fruit trees here, more as rough hedging plants.

I have a fairly large tree in my front garden as well as quite a lot in
the hedges here.

I suspect they are the prototype from which the greengage was developed
(and there are at least half a dozen varieties of that)

The black alternative is the bullace, which unlike the sloe or the
damson, is actually quite sweet.

Although Mirabelles are pretty good, gages are better! *In a good year
ours are utterly deliciousness and crop in the '5 tesco bags a tree'
quantity and are totally edible raw..nectar sweet. Or pick early and
freeze after stoning.

I would agree with the mirabelle diagnosis. There are a wide range of
these from small cherry size to some 30mm in diameter - and a range of
colours from yellow through to dark red.

We've just come back from in-land Bulgaria where we helped pick the
bigger ones to make rakia by the country people. Rakia is the
equivalent of grappa in Italy and is a distilled spirit made from any
fruit. Our hosts were scathing about regulations banning
distillation. I was interested in the fact that fermentation was on
natural yeast and sugar, and only a little water was added.

Rob