Prunes

Sweet with a deep taste and a sticky chewy texture, prunes are not only fun to eat they are highly nutritious. As with other dried fruits, they are available year round.

Any of more than 125 varieties of fruit, most grown for drying. Four of the most common varieties are French, Imperial, Italian, and Greengage. Prunes are cultivars of plum species (mostly Prunus domestica). In general, prunes are freestone cultivars (the stone is easy to remove), whereas plums are cling (the stone is more difficult to remove). Fresh prunes reach the market earlier than fresh plums and are usually smaller in size. Prune juice is more fiber-rich than plum juice and is often marketed as a way to increase regularity.

Dried fruit of the prune tree were traditionally called "dried prunes" or "prunes", but an effort is currently underway to market them as "dried plums". In the United States, due to the negative association of prunes with its laxative effects and the elderly, the California Dried Plum Board has renamed and begun remarketing prunes as "dried plums".