The BPs I’ve eaten are unremarkable eaten fresh. They are one of my favorites as jelly. It must be that the skins contribute quite a bit to the cooked flavor (as in a good red wine which is fermented but not cooked on its skins). But the skins are sour and maybe also slightly bitter when eaten fresh. Hope that helps! (I qualified this via an edit - the first post was WAY too much of a generalization. I would LOVE to hear from others who have experience with BPs that ARE great eaten fresh. My big one pictured above is actually pretty good eaten fresh (might be a hybrid…).
Thanks. That is clear.
Sorry, I’ll try again. Most people tasting Beach Plum would say “not spectacular”.
I have yet to try them, but the historic variety ‘Hancock’ is described as sweet and tasty out of hand
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It would be interesting to see how Hancock actually tastes. When I lived on Long Island, I would forage beach plums in the fall. The yellow ones were always sweet and easier to eat out of hand, but also reliably bland. None of the bitterness, but not really much flavor to speak of. I recall Oikos tried selecting out a line of yellow plums but abandoned it when they all were uniformly bland.
I feel like so much of the actual desirable flavor of beach plums is tied in with the bitter/sour aspects. I have a hard time picturing how to breed out one that is less sour and bitter but still tastes good. FWIW, I personally always enjoyed the “normal” ones eaten out of hand. I’m also the weirdo who likes to eat plain raw cranberries, though.
I have a handful of Oikos’ Nana strain seedlings that I grew from seed. I had one flowering this year, and next year I think there will be at least 4 flowering. I’ll report back on how they taste, assuming the birds don’t get them all!
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We’ll see for ourselves in a year or two…
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Update: Of all the grafts done last year, two have flower buds; CF #5 and Hancock. CF #5 is grafted on a mature bush, so I might actually get a plum or two (though likely not as they’re very late to bloom). Hancock is on a small Myrobalan rootstock an although it’s thriving, it’s also late to bloom so time will tell whether I get any plums to taste from it…
TONS of flowers on all my mature BPs this year so I’m hoping for a banner harvest!
-Pete
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keep us posted! my BP grafts from wood you sent me are all doing well.
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Rutgers 1-1 and a wild one are both grafted onto Santa Rosa. They flower after my other plums so will have to cross pollinate each other. They have flower buds this year. I’ll see in a few weeks if there is fruit.
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All are awakening for me other than premier which I might have killed by trying to dig up the runner rootstock I grafted it on too soon.
I’m surprised how late BP flower. They are in full bloom right now while the AU plums have quarter size fruit. With favorable weather, I now have a good idea of ripening schedule on our site.
AU plums>wild goose>oikos runner>Chickasaw>Dunbar>beach plums
It’s possible that most years will only see the beach plums escape spring frosts but the other Americans should do well too.
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I’ve got one BP loaded with buds, and the remaining trees probably have 10-20 buds between them. Hopefully, that’s enough to pollinate better than 10% of the loaded tree’s flowers.
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Pix of my mature BPs mostly in bloom (the big one was beautiful but I forgot to take a pic until it was already in petal drop)
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My Oikos ECOS BP which has yellow fruit had quite a few flowers on it this year at the same time some of my others were in bloom, so I’m hoping for its first decent fruit set…
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Pix of my best beach plum (which is a hybrid of some sort as the leaves have a slightly pubescent upper surface). Fruit all over this thing and the branches are already drooping. Hoping for a banner harvest this year.
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Looking good! What variety is it?
It’s a seedling. I got the seed from a beach plum I ate at a BYFG (Backyard Fruit Growers) tasting maybe 10 years ago.
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Oh, cool! What makes it your ‘best’ beach plum?
It’s my largest strongest tree, and it grows decent fruit. Now it appears it is also highly productive. If you look up higher in this thread you’ll see some of its fruit in my hand. fruit is a reasonably good size for Beach Plum. Flavor is pretty typical of beach plums. But I don’t want to count my chickens before they’ve hatched. I have several other trees from seeds I collected in the wild in Delaware. The fruit on those trees is much smaller and drier. I’m giving these trees one more year before I decide whether or not to replace them with one of many seedlings I have growing in pots.
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Rutgers 1-1 is a precocious little bugger! Bench grafted last year to Americana rootstock and only 2 feet tall!
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you going to offer any beach plums for sale on your site in the future? id be interested in a few.