About

The greengages are a group of cultivars of the common Middle Eastern plum. Greengages are grown in temperate areas and are known for the rich, confectionery flavour. They are considered to be among the finest dessert plums though they are also consumed unripe when they are pleasantly tart, hard and crunchy.

How to grow it

In the Czech Republic, they are known as ringle, in Poland as renklody, in Hungary as ringló, in Slovakia as ringloty, in Slovenia as ringlo, and in Portugal as Rainha Cláudia. They are widely grown, typically for eating out of hand or stewing in syrup to make a compote. In Portugal, however, they make up a delicacy invented by Dominican nuns in the 16th or 17th century (when confined to their convents) in the town of Elvas, where they are boiled in a sugary syrup several times, over the course of several weeks, to then be preserved whole in syrup or dried, coated in sugar and eaten either with a local dessert, sericaia, made from eggs, sugar, milk, cinnamon and flour or eaten with rich cheeses.

The green cultivars are bred more or less true from seed. Several similar cultivars produced from seedlings are now available; some of these include other plum cultivars in their parentage. Widely grown cultivars include:

Uses

They are considered to be among the finest dessert plums. Anna Pavord calls them the "most ambrosial of all tree fruit", and David Karp described them as "the best fruit in the world". A greengage jam can be spread on toast, used in jam tarts or eaten with scones.

Other Prunus plants

Prunus adenopoda · Red stinkwood · Prunus aitchisonii · Alabama cherry · Prunus alaica · Allegheny plum · American plum · Prunus amplifolia · Almond · Desert peach · Chickasaw plum · Prunus annularis