What a disappointment! The plums looked lovely, as my picture shows, but they taste of nothing...Is it just me or are plums everywhere particularly tasteless this year?
August's plum time in my garden, with 'Victoria' a firm family favourite. Everyone loves them, especially my daughter Danielle, who strips my single fan-trained plum before even the wasps get a taste!
This has led me to extend my plum picking season by planting an earlier ripening 'Opal' and later ripening 'Marjorie's Seedling', so I'd hoped to be enjoying plums from mid-July until September. My 'Opal' was planted about five years ago, but fruit has been non-existent until this year. Having waited patiently I was rewarded with a bumper crop that started ripening about three weeks ago.
But, oh, what a disappointment! The plums looked lovely, as my picture shows, but they taste of nothing. Lovely size, beautiful soft flesh...but no sweetness or fruity flavour at all. Is it just me or are plums everywhere particularly tasteless this year?
Perhaps the relentless rain and lack of sun have taken their toll, swelling fruits but making them very 'watery'. Good looks aren't everything. It's flavour I want - organic home-grown plums to eat straight from the tree with enough left over to freeze and cook during winter. My 'Victoria' plums are swelling nicely, so I just hope they have the flavour to match their appearance.
Crops have certainly been affected by the heavy rain, so it will be interesting to see what other gardeners have found, and what lessons we can learn for the future. I see from Jane's allotment blog that her spuds are suffering. Well, at least the watercress is loving it!
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