The plum tree rocks

I love the plum tree in my yard.  It is about 40 years old.  It was probably planted when the house was built.  Over the years it has provided dark purple, sweet plums for all the families living here.

A few years ago a man drove by the house while I was out front and asked about the plums tree.  He had grown up in the house as a boy and remembers how good they were.   I told him it was still hanging in there, and to drop by around June for some fruit.

The fruit is best when you wait until the plum is dark purple, and just slips off the tree.  They are soft and dripping with sweet juice.

This is not the plum you would plant for commercial purposes; where they pick the fruit and let it ripen on the truck on the way to the store.

These plums don’t work that way. You have to wait for them to ripen on the tree, and then they’re fragile.  The only place you’ll want to ship them to is your kitchen!

This poor tree has been dying for a few years now.  Every year when it loses its foliage I wonder if I will be seeing it again in spring.  It is a multi trunk tree, but a few of the larger branches are dead.  I’ve been cutting off the dead wood and trying to make my friend as comfortable as possible in the autumn of its life.  Half of the trunk is dead, bark peeling, sun bleached wood.  Then out of a dead branch that looks more like driftwood than fruitwood, I’ll find green poking out and a few flowers opening.

This tree is a testament to perseverance.  More photos to come!