Anyone heard of 'fortune' plums?

...not a variety I have heard of before, anyone tried them? What are they like? Any good for stewing?

do you plan to plant them or do you have a supply?
I think all plums stew OK. Some are sweeter than others.

Hi Tigger,

they are a rather large plum originally grown commercially for the Japanese market. My father grew them for that reason.

In the past few years, they seem to have made their way onto the local market. Not sure if the bum fell out of the "exporting to Japan" idea or what happened. Dad retired and sold out to a developer who promptly chopped down all the trees.

But they are lovely eating, when fully ripe.

cheers
Jan

Can they be stewed, Ronnie? Stewed plums and custard yum

Bought some Luisa plums today at the Farmers Market, I must say they are my absolute favourite for eating 'raw', have definitely added them to my list of fruit trees for the (future) orchard.

Don't see why not - they are a plum afterall. We only ever got to eat them raw, if we were quick enough to get them before they went to market.

they make the most beautiful jam. We have planted about 5 (I think) Fortune plum trees after buying lots of fruit last year and this, from a place in Greytown. They are freestone and so we stone ours before freezing them. The fruit is kind of perfumed, as is the jam - the jam is a beautiful red colour. Yes they stew well, better than Burbank and are lovely when ripe to eat. When you buy them in the supermarket they are, as with most fruit, nothing like the real thing. According to the orchard we bought our plums from they are an older variety, and it took us a bit to find where to source the trees, though we ahev since seen them in other places.

To freeze them stoned (the fruit not us ) if you cut them in half not on the centre line, nor half way but obliquely - say about 30 degrees from the centre line, then twist off a half, and if you have aimed right, you can then flcik the stone out. This year we will have done 120kg this way and you do get quite quick at it.

Tigger, we have a luisa though (she) hasn't fruited yet - the woman we bought most of our trees from says that this is one of her favourite plums too. For the most beautiful on the tree though I think I would have to say "Stanley" prune - really purple, same shape as luisa, but with green flesh. Not quite ripe yet, though will have to pick this weekend to beat the birds.