Perfect Plum
The West Country plum season is in full swing, although many trees (mine included) aren’t up to much this year.
Plums grow well in certain parts of the region but, alas, many local varieties have disappeared. Which is a real shame because we hear more and more complaints about the blandness of the fruits on offer in supermarkets – products which often have travelled halfway around the planet to get here.
How things have changed since the people of Truro used to turn out en-masse in plum season to walk miles down the banks of the Fal estuary to the hamlet of Old Kea and beyond into the parish of Feock, where secret places like Cowland Creek would be scented with the heavy sweet smell of fruit. Having done deals with local smallholders, they’d have laboured back with pales full of raw fruit ingredient.
Where Cow Creek meets the Fal
Barry Champion, who for many years was head gardener at the National Trust’s Trelissick Estate in Cornwall, once told me: “I’ve lived around the Fal estuary all my life and when I was a youngster my parents would walk from Truro to Kea and Coombe and buy plums in season.
Plum Country - in Cornwall
“It was a real treat for all us children,” said Barry. “We’ve got a unique landscape here – a unique set of conditions. The old smallholders knew that. They’d rent a cottage with three or four acres and they all had Kea plums - and local apples - and that was a source of income.
Orchards in Cowlands Creek near Old Kea
“Originally they’d have gone up by boat to Truro to sell their wares – but more latterly people went to the farm-gate. At one point they even set up a small canning factory – it was years ago, but as these plums tend to only crop every other year, they had to abandon it.”
I like making a plumy chutney. De-stone, then salt a couple of pounds of plums. After a few hours in a colander, they’ll have cast off a great deal of their wateriness and have much firmer in texture. Wash off the salt and dry the plums in a fan oven for 20 minutes. Then add them to a cup of boiling vinegar in which you’ve placed half a dozen dried chillies, some black peppercorns and half a dozen cloves. Add two sliced onions and three crushed cloves of garlic and allow the mix to reduce for 20 minutes. The trick is to then introduce a cup of your own homemade plum jam (simply plums, Demerara sugar and a splash of dark rum) and cook the whole lot for a few minutes more before dispensing into prepared jars.
This plum chutney will be an ideal companion to winter meat dishes, especially oriental ones like duck that has been roasted with Chinese spices.
