Pretty and purple
Prunes, er, dried plums are on decline
Some of the roughly 50 tons of prunes harvested at the Burton orchard this year. (Brad Zweerink/The Reporter)
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Product profile • Prune farms have diminished during the past three decades in Solano County. Most prunes in the world are grown in California. Yuba and Sutter counties produce the most and annually grow about 72,000 acres of prunes, with gross sales of $129 million in 2003. • The prune got a name change in 2001. The industry now calls them "dried plums." But not all plums can be prunes. • Sunsweet is the largest producer and marketer of prune products. California, the largest producer of dried plums in the world, has the California Dried Plum Board, which markets the fruit.
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For some Solano County farmers, the prune is a paycheck.
The Lum family has grown prunes since the early 20th century in Suisun Valley, and Ray Ferrari's 400 acres of land, which is mostly fallow these days, includes 50 acres of prunes.
The number of prunes grown in Solano County has diminished during the past three decades because dry yards are disappearing.
"We would like to see processing plants (for various fruits) in Solano County," said Bob Hansen, president of the Suisun Valley Fruitgrowers Association.
"Most of our prunes go up north for processing," explained Solano County Agricultural Commissioner Jerry Howard.
Dry yards in Yuba City, where Sunsweet dries its fruit, and elsewhere in Northern California are a long haul for farmers in Solano County. The miles add up to extra costs, especially with gas prices at $3 per gallon, farmers said.
Prunes in 2005 were ranked 18th among the county's million-dollar crops, bringing in gross receipts of $1.88 million, according to the 2005 Solano County crop report. The gross amounts do not include the costs of farming, such as gasoline, labor, pesticides, equipment and other items needed for production.
Solano County last year had 362,176 acres of land used for agriculture. Of that, 1,331 acres were in prunes. Three years earlier, farmers devoted 1,900 acres to prunes.
The decline in prune production mirrors that of other stone fruits that once flourished in the county's climate. Farmers pulled out orchards when local dry yards and processors closed and the costs of shipping cut into their already thin profit margins.
California and Solano County have a long history of producing prunes, now known as dried plums. The name change became official in 2001 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration OK'd it, based on a request from the California Prune Board, which also amended its name to the California Dried Plum Board.
"The name change was done in an attempt to overcome the negative perception of prunes being a laxative for the elderly," according to the 2005 prune commodity report by the University of California, Davis.
Not every plum can become a prune in the drying process, though every prune was once a plum.
"A fresh plum variety, known as the prune-plum, is one of the few plum varieties that can be dried without severe fermentation," according to Sunsweet.com. "Technically, only dried plums are called prunes, though the term is commonly applied to fresh plums that can be dried successfully."
California grows 99 percent of the prunes produced in the United States, and the country produces 70 percent of the world's prunes. San Jose nurseryman Louis Pellier in 1856 introduced the first prunes into California, the Prune d'Agen, or French prune, according to the Davis commodity report.
Though the California prune industry got its start in San Jose, most of California's sweet plums now grow in counties north of Solano.
"With almost one-third of California's plum acreage in Yuba and Sutter counties, the area rightfully claims the title of Prune Capital of the World," according to the Web site for the California Prune Festival in Yuba City.
Forty-four years after Pellier grew the state's first prunes, California had 90,000 acres in prunes. But the dried plum industry slowed due to pressure from various sources, such as government regulation and increased labor expenses. By 2004, total acreage in California dropped to an estimated 72,000 acres.
In Solano County, encroachment from cities helped cripple the industry. Fairfield once had a thriving dry yard that county growers used. The city used imminent domain and condemned the yard. It is now part of the city's properties in downtown.
Most of the county's dried plums are grown in Suisun Valley, Vacaville and Winters. The plums are generally hauled to Sunsweet in Yuba City. Some end up in various fruit stands or farm-based businesses, such as Cal-Yee in Suisun Valley. Mariani Premium Dried Fruits in Vacaville also markets sweet plum products.
Sunsweet markets its dried plums in myriad forms, from bite-sized chocolate-covered pieces called Plumsweets to Plumsmart Plum Juice.
No matter how you slice it, the prune is a sweet fruit with a load of vitamins and, yes, plenty of roughage.
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