Just desserts

There are, as we all know, many disadvantages to going away on holiday, not least the fact — so ably nailed by Alain de Botton — that we are forced to take ourselves with us. How relaxing it would be to leave home without one’s own deficiencies and inability to enjoy oneself when doing nothing. By the same token, some absolute essentials for happiness have to be left at home: in my case, my dessert plum trees.

This year, in mid-August, we went away for just one week. The ‘Denniston’s Superb’ greengages were just ripening when we left, so I picked as many as I could to put in the fridge. I topped up the sugar solution in the wasp traps hanging from the branches. A week later, we returned to find that almost all had been substantially damaged by wasps (the traps having dried up in the meantime), while the rest had fallen to the ground. Those picked for the fridge were beyond all human expression delicious, but there were not nearly enough of them to satisfy our craving for this sweet, juicy-fleshed, round, greenish-yellow dessert plum.

The plum (Prunus domestica) is a hybrid developed from at least two wild Prunus species; it arose many centuries ago, probably in the Caucasus, and was then carried westwards by merchants and other travellers. Plum stones have been found at Roman archaeological sites in this country. These days, there are upwards of 100 varieties. Plums have skins varying in colour from yellow and pink to deep purple; they can be dessert, i.e., capable of being eaten off the tree, culinary or ‘dual-purpose’. Greengages, which are botanically closely related, but distinctive in appearance, are green or yellow, smaller and more rounded than other plums.