FOOD FACTS

Buying and Storing

Shop for plums with good colour and a full, smooth, relatively heavy feel. They should yield to gentle pressure, especially at the end opposite the stem. Good quality ripe plums should have a distinctively "plumy" sweet fragrance.

Reject shrivelled skin, bruises or brown spots, and fruit that feels hard (but not firm); also avoid excessively soft fruit or any sign of leakage or decay.

Ripen plums at room temperature out of direct sunlight or in a loosely closed brown paper bag. Ripe plums should be refrigerated and eaten as soon as possible.

Preparing

Rinse off the fruit just before using. Peel as you would peaches and tomatoes: immerse briefly in boiling water and slip off skin when cool enough to handle. All Ontario plums can be enjoyed raw, whole or cut up in salads, on breakfast dishes (cereal, pancakes, waffles) and as a main-course garnish.

Prune plums are also well-suited to use in baked cobblers and crisps, pies, shortcakes, coffee cakes; in preserves and meat and game sauces; as flavouring for ice cream; and as the base of a chilled summer soup.