July 2023 Produce Parable

Very Cherry Plums
By Adam Calder, Produce Manager

The Wheatsfield Cooperative produce department is excited to share with you a recent addition to our selection: Very Cherry Plums!

If you have never had a Very Cherry Plum, you are in for a delicious treat. This fruit was developed in 2011 by The Flavor Tree Fruit Company in California. Using traditional plant breeding methods, plums were cross-bred to several different kinds of cherries such as Bing and Stella, and a one-of-a-kind new fruit was produced.

The cherry genes give the fruit the appearance of a very large cherry, a delightful crunch, sweet-tasting flesh, and a small pit. The plum genes give the skin a bit of tartness, and the flesh a touch of the fibrous texture of a plum so the fruit will not split open after rains the way cherries can. The plum genes also extend the harvest season of the fruit compared to that of cherries.

Unfortunately for home gardeners, these fruits are intended to be grown only by professional arborists as they are not self-fertile and require specific pollination methods. You can plant a seed from a Very Cherry Plum, and it may sprout into a seedling, but the tree will likely never produce fruit.

These Very Cherry Plums are not to be confused with another fruit long known as cherry plums, also known as myrobalan plums (Prunus cerasifera). These fruits, native to Eurasia, are a pure plum and not related to cherries at all. They produce fruit of inconsistent quality and are therefor not widely grown or distributed.

There are other companies developing similar cherry/plum cross-breeds, with names like Pixie Sweet, Cherums, Plerries, Gold Nugget, Cherub and Cherrium. Each cultivar has varying ratios of cherry and plum genes, so each one has a unique flavor profile. This is very similar to the development of the many pluot (plum/apricot cross-breeds with more plum genes) and aprium (apricot/plum cross-breeds with more apricot genes) varieties over the past ten years.

The season on these special fruits is short, just a few weeks in the summer, so grab a bag the next time you are shopping at Wheatsfield. Eat them chilled for a refreshing, satisfying summertime treat.