1. PLUMS

2. PLUMS The plum is a pitted fruit, related to the nectarine, peach and apricot. It comes in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and skin colors. Its flavor also varies from very sweet to slightly tart.

3. PLUMS Japanese plums originated in China but were domesticated in Japan 400 years ago. They are round, clingstone fruit with juicy yellow or reddish flesh. Their skin colors range from yellow, green, red, purple and black.

4. PLUMS European plums are smaller, oval fruit. Their skin is blue or purple, their flesh yellow and the pit freestone. These are the plums made into prunes

5. PLUMS When Frenchmen, Louis and Pierre Pellier, came to California during the Gold Rush, they didn’t find much gold. So they decided to try growing plums in the state’s rich soil instead. When they attached part of a French plum tree to a wild American plum tree—a practice that farmers call “grafting"—they created the California Dried Plum that’s famous today. These trees grew so well that other growers soon caught on, and orchards began popping up all over California.

6. PLUMS When a labor shortage hit California in 1905, one farmer had the idea to use 500 monkeys to harvest his plums. Organized into gangs of 50 with a human foreman, the monkeys learned to pick the plums. But they ate all they picked! Eventually a machine was created to do the work.

7. PLUM California is America’s leading grower of plums, producing nearly 90% of all domestic plums.

8. PLUMS Plums are a good source of Vitamin C and Vitamin A.

9. PLUMS References on Plums http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=35 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum http://www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov/month/plum.html http://www.harvestofthemonth.com/download.asp http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=103 http://www.californiadriedplums.org/AboutDriedPlums/FunFacts/ Children’s Literature on Plums Plum By Tony Mitton Each Peach Pear Plum By Janet and Allan Ahlberg Plum Full of Prunes By Phillip Hauck Prunes and Rupe By Lydia Griffin