Fruit Full, fruits: plums and cherries

the first treats

Sweet foods have a lot of power over us. We have an innate predisposition for sugar and its sweet taste. What we call a "treat" is often something sweet and I believe that in the mists of time, our first sweet treats were fruits. Our ancestors did have access to sugar, they ate root vegetables which contain sugars, plant sap like maple and agave syrup, and of course honey, which is practically pure sugar.

Fruits are special. They have evolved over millions of years to be eaten by animals with a sweet palate, such as bears, primates and humans, in order for their seeds to be dispersed far and wide. To guarantee this, the seeds are designed to pass through the gut mostly intact after the fruit has been eaten. They are then deposited in a new location, with a poo package which is a nitrogen rich fertiliser. Recent studies have shown that fruits eaten by primates (who often have a well-developed sense of smell), change their aroma when ripe. By doing this, the plant is telling the animal that the fruit is now sweet and ready to eat, at the same time as its seeds are ready for dispersal. In contrast, fruits eaten mainly by birds (who rely on vision rather than smell), do not change their aroma to advertise their ripeness and sweetness.

fruit nutrition

Fruits are rich in sugars: simple sugars such as glucose and fructose, as well as sucrose (one glucose and one fructose bound together). Sugars are carbohydrates, like starches and fibres, but they are the only carbohydrates that taste sweet and fructose is the sweetest of them all. Fruits are rich in fructose, so they taste very sweet but their sugar content is relatively low, because they contain a high proportion of water. For example, an apple is 12% sugar, whilst a Mars bar is 60%. Also, fresh fruits are rich in fibres, vitamins, micronutrients and other compounds which are essential to our health and wellbeing. Most importantly they are low in calories and very low in fat. On top of this, their high fibre content helps us to feel satiated for longer and slows down the digestion of sugars in our gut, thus avoiding unhealthy sugar spikes in the blood. What more could we want?

fruits in desserts

Many of our desserts do include real fruits. The fruits' wonderful flavour, colour and texture are essential for the recipes and their natural taste is even enhanced by the addition of free sugar. Fruit jams are a traditional example but the choice is huge nowadays, with fruits in yoghurts, fresh cheese and cream desserts, fruit juices, fruity bars and granolas, puddings, tarts, pies and cakes, all containing fruits in various guises, either dried, chopped, pureed, sieved, cooked or processed in some other way.

Nowadays, we add pure, processed sugar to a myriad of our foods. For many people, a fresh fruit is no longer special, it’s just a (boring) fruit. To qualify, treats must be sweeter, fattier, richer, almost as if the worse they are for our health, the more pleasurable they are. To cap it all, many snacks and treats are now cheaper to buy than a pound of fresh fruits.

And if the real fruit itself is no longer wanted or deemed necessary, its aroma, flavour and colour have all been recreated artificially to give a fruity illusion to factory made cakes and energy bars. By including fruits in their recipes, some of these products may claim to be healthy, but their high sugar and fat content says otherwise. Sure, we all need treats, including unhealthy ones! However, replacing a few of these with fresh fruits wouldn’t do us any harm...

plums

Plums have been cultivated for a very long time. Archeological evidence of their use has been found in Europe dating from Neolithic times. By the time of Elizabeth I in Britain, dried plums had become so popular that the term "plum" referred to all types of dried fruits, hence the famous "plum pudding", which now rarely contains any plums.

Plums are well known for their nutritional benefits, being rich in many important vitamins, micronutrients and fibres, and their role in easing constipation is well documented. A very aromatic plum kernel oil is also made from the seed, used both as a culinary ingredient and a cosmetic product.

There are many types of plums. Dessert plums are juicy, with a higher sugar content and a rich flavour. Cooking plums are often less sweet but respond well to being heated. Some plums are suited to both uses.

main plum varieties

Victoria - A traditional English variety. The fruit is oval, orangey red or pale purple. The stone is semi-clinging but fairly easy to remove. It is a dual-purpose plum for both dessert and culinary use. Named after Queen Victoria, it is the most popular local plum in the UK, although it can be somewhat lacking in flavour.

Greengage - Gages are smaller and rounder, usually green or yellow. Originally from Italy, they have been grown in France since the Middle Ages, coming to Britain in the 18th century. They are some of the best dessert plums, with an ideal combination of sweetness and sharpness. They are best suited to a milder climate and can be hard to find growing in Britain, sadly.

Damson - This is a cooking plum, used for making jam. Both high in sugar and very tart, it is fairly small, slightly pointed at one end, varying from dark blue to black. Damsons probably originated from Britain. They are slow croppers. An ancient rhyme says: "He who plants plums, plants for his sons. He who plants damsons, plants for his grandsons."

Mirabelle - Descended from the cherry plum, mirabelles are small round plums, dark yellow or red in colour, almost exclusively grown in north-eastern France. They are used for making pies, preserves, wine and liquor, but can also be eaten fresh. The longest "tarte aux mirabelles" in the world was made in 2006 in Nancy, measuring 206.31 metres!

Satsuma plums - These come from the Japanese plum. They arrived in California in the 19th century and most of the modern cultivars were bred there. The trees require a milder climate and so are not grown in Britain. They are now the main plums sold in UK supermarkets, largely thanks to their long storage and shelf life. They are large plums, with a round body, firm flesh, dark red skin and often very little taste, although fruits picked ripe from the tree may tell a different story...

more information

For an overview of this art and science project, go to: Fruit Full home page

To discover three other fruits: raspberries, quinces and mulberries, go to: Fruits 2

If you would like more information about the five fruits celebrated here, you can download the following texts, as pdf documents:

Fruits is about fruits and the origins of fruit farming.

Five Fruits is a longer text about the five fruits featured: plums, cherries, raspberries, quinces and mulberries.

all about cherries

When Alexander the Great from ancient Greece (356-323 BC) conquered Persia and northwestern India, settlements along the way became known as the Silk Road. This trade brought fruits from Central Asia to the Mediterranean. As a result, the plants’ Latin names often describe not where they are from but where the traders found them. What is known as the sour cherry - Prunus cerasus - was named after the town of Kerasous on the Turkish Black Sea. However, it may be that the town was actually named after the fruit, not the other way round. The name "cerasus" became "cherry" later on, although another type of cherries, the sweet cherry, is actually native to Europe. There is archeological evidence of wild sweet cherries being eaten in Britain about 5000 to 4000 BC. So, despite their somewhat exotic reputation, cherries are local fruits!

Edible cherries have changed little in appearance since Roman times. Sweet cherries are mainly eaten fresh. Sour cherries are unpalatable but ideal for canning, freezing, cooking, drying, making jams and brandy. Sour cherries became popular in the UK during the 16th century and the reign of Henry VIII, remaining so until the Second World War.

Another type of cherries, the flowering cherry trees, are famed for their beautiful flowers and ornamental value. They are planted in gardens and parks all over the world, particularly in the Far East. Their fruits are small and unpalatable.

growing cherry trees

Cherry trees are a demanding crop, particularly those grown for the fresh fruits market. They suffer from many pests and diseases and are very prone to damage from hail storms, as well as to splitting after heavy rain. After pollination, the developing fruits must be protected throughout spring and early summer, including from birds, who love them. Added to this, a fruit fly originally from Asia has recently been found in the UK, the Spotted Wing Drosophila, which is now causing havoc in some orchards. The trees must be protected with expensive high tunnel structures with movable covers and netting. Once the fruits are picked, the covers must be removed, because the trees do not grow well if left covered the whole year round.

Harvesting sweet cherries for the fresh fruits market is done by hand, a laborious job which often represents more than half of the total cost of production. In the past in the UK, the cherry season lasted only for a few weeks in summer but the arrival of new cultivars has now extended it from June to September. Once ripe, cherries do not last and so cannot be stored for long. The fresh fruits available out of season in our supermarkets are therefore flown in from the southern hemisphere, with a huge air miles baggage attached as a consequence.