Imperiale Epineuse

Imperiale Epineuse

Regular price $32.00 Sale

The largest of the XIX century prunes, and also the best for fresh eating. A seedling discovered ca. 1840 in Lot-et-Garonne department, where it became highly reputed well before Felix Gillet imported it to California in the 1870s. The latest of the drying prunes in California, it made a magnificent dried product, both on account of size and for its sugar content. But while it may yet be made into prunes, it is as a dessert fruit that we offer it: easily the juiciest, sweetest of all the prunes. Late ripening, the public schools of Santa Clara County did not commence classes until the Imperial Prune harvest was on the trays. Requires pricking or lye dip to properly sun-dry; not required in dehydrators. Individual fruits were tissue wrapped to preserve their shape after drying. Early September. On Nemagard.