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History |
| Dark, glossy and bursting with
sunshine, the Agen prune has been taken for granted for centuries
as part of the local culinary heritage in south western France. |
 We
know that plums have existed since the most remote antiquity,
but it was in the 12th century, that the Crusaders brought damson
trees back from their Syrian expeditions. The monks in the Abbey
of Clairac, crossing a damson tree with a local plum, created
a new variety which they called the Ente plum, from the old
French word "enter", meaning "to graft". |
The Clairac monks were also the
first to realise that the fruit could be preserved for an entire
year once they had been dried in the sun.
The story of the Agen prune had begun !
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| The moist, sunny climate
and soil type of the Lot et Garonne were ideally suited to the
Ente plum, and by the early 16th century, plums orchards were
blossoming throughout the region. Later, after the construction
of the Canal du Midi linking the Mediterranean and the Atlantic
ports, Agen, now a shipping port itself, gave its name to the
dried fruit of the Ente plum - the Agen prune. |
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[Portrait
of a strapping fruit] - [Library]
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