At the end of our road on a patch of council land is a tree that bears
yellow/green plum-like fruit at this time of year. In flavour they are
exceeding sweet and delicious and doth greatly please the palate. The ripe
fruit are most wondrously uniform in size being all nearly exactly three
barleycorns in length, or one inch in the modern parlance, and a little less
in width by the measure of one half of a barleycorn.

The court artist has, at our command, made the most perfect representation
of the fruit and leaves which can be viewed in the following galleries.

http://www.pumaracing.co.uk/Picture%20001.jpg

http://www.pumaracing.co.uk/Picture%20002.jpg

The fruit don't have any waxy bloom on them like some plums. I did first
think they were probably greengages of some kind but those are supposed to
have a crease on one side of the fruit and these don't being perfectly
symmetrical.

So what are they and how does one grow them? I'd like to either grow some
from the stones in the fruit if that's possible although Google seems to
think that doesn't always result in a true copy of the parent plant, or from
cuttings, so I can take them with me when I move house.
--
Dave Baker

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.
--
Dave Baker

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.

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

On 23/07/2011 13:52, 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.

I would go with greengage as well. We have a tree in our garden that
produces something very similar looking - absolutely delicious - and
normally scoffed by the blinkin birds before anyone else gets a look in!

--
Cheers,

John.

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On Jul 23, 1:36*pm, "Dave Baker" wrote:
At the end of our road on a patch of council land is a tree that bears
yellow/green plum-like fruit at this time of year. In flavour they are
exceeding sweet and delicious and doth greatly please the palate. The ripe
fruit are most wondrously uniform in size being all nearly exactly three
barleycorns in length, or one inch in the modern parlance, and a little less
in width by the measure of one half of a barleycorn.

The court artist has, at our command, made the most perfect representation
of the fruit and leaves which can be viewed in the following galleries.

http://www.pumaracing.co.uk/Picture%20001.jpg

http://www.pumaracing.co.uk/Picture%20002.jpg

The fruit don't have any waxy bloom on them like some plums. I did first
think they were probably greengages of some kind but those are supposed to
have a crease on one side of the fruit and these don't being perfectly
symmetrical.

So what are they and how does one grow them? I'd like to either grow some
from the stones in the fruit if that's possible although Google seems to
think that doesn't always result in a true copy of the parent plant, or from
cuttings, so I can take them with me when I move house.
--
Dave Baker

They are called bullaces, a form of wild plum.
Google has lots of information on them