From Wikipedia:
The bullace is a variety of plum. It bears edible fruit similar to those of the damson, and like the damson is considered to be a strain of the insititia subspecies of Prunus domestica. Although the term has regionally been applied to several different kinds of “wild plum” found in the United Kingdom, it is usually taken to refer to varieties with a spherical shape, as opposed to the oval damsons.
Unlike nearly all damsons, bullaces may be either “white” (i.e. yellow or green) or “black” (i.e. blue or purple) in colour, and ripen up to six weeks later in the year. Though smaller than most damsons, bullaces are much larger than the closely related sloe Their flavour is usually rather acidic until fully ripe.
My introduction to bullaces…
My mother-in-law was born in Surrey in 1914, and although only five years older than my own father, she had a foot in a different world, a pre-world war world. Also, although my father was very much a country boy, growing up on the edge of Cambridge which apart from the university was very much a market town, she grew up in the small villages of Nutfield and Bletchingley, right in the heart of the Surrey countryside.
I was always interested in things she told me about her life as a child, and she used to talk about the wild fruit they would pick, blackberries, sloes, crab apples, and also bullaces… of which I had never heard. being interested in food, in hedgerow foraging, dragging the children off to pick hips and haws for a recipe I’d come across, going out with bags for blackberries, and although I’d read a lot of fiction and factual stories about the English country, I’d never ever heard of bullaces.
Even now, although I’m so interested in them,, I’ve never found any and never tried any. I think I know where a wild tree grows, but it’s on a very buys trunk road and inaccessible. I have a very interesting book, called Forgotten Fruits, by Christopher Stocks, and I’ve had a look to see what Mr Stocks says about bullaces. He starts off his chapter on plums ‘There is something rather bewildering about plums’ it’s not just the origins and ancestry of the fruit, but what they have been called over the years. he gives the example of apples always being called apples, but a plum, he says ‘can also be a damson, a bullace, a greengage or a mirabelle… a cherry plum or a prune‘. there is a whole chapter about plums but here is a summary of their origins, according to Mr Stocks:
- bullaces and cherry plums are probably derived from a wild plum, prunus cerasifera for cherry plums and prunus institia for the bullace
- bullaces are probably the ancestors of damsons and mirabelles
- ordinary plums, dessert plums, are probably a hybrid of cherry plums and sloes from the blackthorn bush, prunus spinosa, but maybe not, maybe it’s just the cherry plum!
- prunes and greengages are just different varieties of ordinary dessert plums
I had never heard of mirabelles either, until I read one of the Inspector Wexford novels, by Ruth Rendell where there is a character who has mirabelles in her garden – which she calls miracles.
Lois Elsden 
Love it Lo ………… back to pre war rural England
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Interesting post, thank you! Mirabelle is a French variety of sweet, small, round yellow plums that are ideal to eat as such or to make a “tarte aux prunes” as the skin is neither thick nor bitter. I had never heard of prune as a plum variety (in French it just means plum, and in English I thought it only meant dried plums).
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One thing I didn’t mention, is greengages! Surely the most delicious of drupes but I very rarely see them in the greengrocer’s shop. I think you are right about ‘prune’ – I will check and amend!
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You did mention greengages when quoting somebody, they’re my favourites but very difficult to get by nowadays, the French call them ‘Reine Claude’. Oh what a lovely topic plums are for language teachers!
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Reine Claude, so sticky, so delicious!
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I managed to source a Mirabelle tree for my allotment, it gave a reasonable crop this year. They’re small and sweet, lovely
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Wonderful – the first time I ever heard of them was in a Ruth Rendell book, where a character called them miracles!
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When I first heard the word I thought they were Mirror Belles 😀
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Tee=hee-hee! I saw some actual trees for sale in a garden centre, seriously thinking about getting one!
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Oh do get one, they’re lovely
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It’s probably the right time to plant it, I guess, in the autumn!
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Yes, once we’re sure the heatwave won’t come back!
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