All guides
How to pick plums
3 min read
Wildly different between varieties, so the farm will tell you more than any general rule.
31
farms
14
regions
June to September
picked
When you can pick plums
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Across every region on Pickeria. Darker months are peak somewhere; your own region is narrower, and the table below gives it.
What to look for
- 1
A powdery bloom on the skin means it has not been handled. Rub it off and it does not come back
- 2
Give slightly at the tip end while the shoulder stays firm. Soft all over is overripe
- 3
They should come away with a slight twist and no real force
- 4
European types for drying and baking are firmer than Japanese types for eating fresh, so do not judge one by the other
- 5
Plums keep ripening on the counter, so picking a little firm is safer than picking soft
What people get wrong
Every one of these is common enough to be worth naming.
- Rubbing off the bloom to see the colour better, then finding the fruit dries out faster
- Judging by squeeze all over. A ripe plum gives at the tip and stays firm at the shoulder
- Assuming a green plum is unripe when the variety may be a gage, which is green when perfect
- Picking European types as soft as Japanese ones. They are meant to be firmer
Varieties worth knowing
Farms post the variety at the gate. This is what the names mean.
Japanese
Round, juicy, red or yellow, and eaten fresh. Santa Rosa is the famous one. These are what most people mean by a plum.
European
Oval, denser, purple, and firmer. Damsons, Italian prunes and greengages. Better for baking, drying and preserving than for eating out of hand.
Italian prune plum
The September workhorse of the north. Freestone, sweet, and the reason plum cake exists.
Greengage
Small, green when ripe, and the best-flavoured plum there is. Rare enough that finding a u-pick row is genuinely lucky.
Once you are home
Most people pick more than they planned to.
- Counter until they give at the tip, then refrigerate for up to five days
- Plum jam needs no added pectin if you include some slightly underripe fruit, which is full of it
- Halve, stone and freeze on a tray. They cook straight from frozen
- Italian prune plums dry into real prunes in a dehydrator or a very low oven
Where you can pick plums
31 farms across 14 regions, earliest season first. Every date came from the farm's own words.
San Francisco, CA6 farms
Farmer's Daughter Produce, Three Nunns Farm, The Urban Edge Farm and 3 more
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June to August
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June to August
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June to July
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June to July
Philadelphia, PA4 farms
Weaver's Orchard, Kauffman Orchards, Mood's Farm Market and 1 more
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August to September
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August to September
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August to September
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August to September
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August to September
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August to September
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August to September
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August to September
Grand Rapids, MI4 farms
Hanulcik Farm Market & Orchard, Farmhaus Farms, Bella Vista Farm and 1 more
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September
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September
