Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1896 — THE PRUNE INDUSTRY. [ARTICLE]

THE PRUNE INDUSTRY.

How French Growers Prepare the Fruit for Market. Consumers of the useful prune, that simple fruit which takes the place of richer preserves, may not know how the French growers prepare the fruit for market, and what a process of the most primitive kind it goes through before packed for exportation. As soon as the prunes are harvested they are taken toa building called the frultery, where they remain a few days to complete maturity. The fruit is then subjected to not less than three, and frequently four, distinct cookings before being pronounced fit for the market. The first two preliminary cookings have for object evaporation of water contained in the fruit; the final cooking, which dries the fruit, Imparts a certain brilliancy much sought by buyers. The sun-dried prunes are most delicious to the taste, but the exigencies of the trade do not permit of such long preparation. In several districts of France the most primitive means are practiced In curing the fruit.. In Provence it is plunged in pots of boiling water, then placed in baskets and gently shaken until cool, when it Is put upon long trays exposed to the sun’s heat to complete the desiccation. At Digne the prunes are not gathered until ripe. Women feel the fruit with their nails to avoid injury to the soft pulp. The fruit is strung on small twigs In such fashion as not to touch. These sticks of prunes are stuck into straw frames, which the suspended In the sun until the prunes easily detach from the stick, the pit is then removed and the same process of sun drying is gone through with, and, when thoroughly desiccated, packed for market. The trays used In the rural districts are quaint affairs, varying In form, dimensions and construction, according to locality. The peasants make them during the winter months, and they are clumsy and cumbersome, and the only excuse is the peasant cannot afford to buy and Is not skillful enough to make better ones. Perhaps some day a little Yankee skill may enter Into this primitive construction, which is now a frame made of hoop, to which Is fastened a wicket-like bottom fashioned from rushes and willow twigs. At least this is the method of preparing prunes In France. The California fruit growers may have a better one.