It is a bitter sweet moment when La Reine Claude- The Greengage- arrives at the market in France.

Bitter because it is the very last of the soft fruit and signals that in the next few weeks the supply of local Apricots, Peaches , Nectarines, and – eventually- plums will cease and we will be faced with a long winter of imported fruit and dried fruit.
But it is sweet because these beauties- called in France after the wife of Francois 1 under whose reign they were first cultivated into France – are the sweetest of all the plums , balls of juicy sugar and make a delicious jam.

In The Oxford Companion to Food Alan Davidson quotes 19th Century gardener Bunyard’s description of the greengage ;

“If there is a better gage than this I know it not, and certainly there is none so beautiful. Its French name Reine Claude Diaphane exactly describes its clear transparent look ; a slight flush of red and then one looks into the depths of transparent amber as one looks into an opal , uncertain how far the eye can penetrate ”

Well yes, Um, My thoughts exactly.