Reine Claude Grøn

Green Reine Claude

It's small. It's green. And to anyone seeing it for the first time, it looks suspiciously like a plum that should have been left on the tree for another couple of weeks.

Then they taste it.

Green Reine Claude is an old dessert plum and quite possibly a candidate for the sweetest plum in existence. When fully ripe, the sweetness and intense plum flavour are almost at a level where you begin to suspect that nature has cheated.

The trees are highly productive and can become covered in small green plums. There is little point in aggressive thinning – Reine Claude isn't going to become particularly large anyway. With this variety, flavour rather than size is the entire point.

Its small size was also one reason it disappeared from modern commercial production. The delicate skin is easily marked and discoloured, and a small green plum has a difficult job competing on a supermarket shelf against large, colourful and cosmetically perfect varieties.

Straight from the tree, however, it is a completely different story.

Those who know Reine Claude tend to love it. First-time customers are often rather more suspicious.

“Is that really ripe?”

Yes.

Just taste it.

On our farm, Reine Claude has become something of a rarity. We produce barely 100 kilos in a typical year – but those kilos rarely struggle to find customers.

Once you've learned that green doesn't mean unripe, it becomes very easy to understand why this ancient plum still has such loyal followers.

- Old dessert variety, now phased out of commercial production
- Small and green – even when fully ripe
- Sweet with a capital S – perhaps the sweetest plum in existence
- Heavy yields, but the fruit remains small regardless of thinning
- Exceptionally rich flavour when eaten straight from the tree
- Delicate skin that bruises and discolours easily
- Loved by enthusiasts – often met with suspicion by first-time customers
- A rarity on our farm – barely 100 kilos per year