Greengage
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The greengages are a group of cultivars of the common Middle Eastern plum. Greengages are grown in temperate areas and are known for the rich, confectionery flavour. They are considered to be among the finest dessert plums though they are also consumed unripe when they are pleasantly tart, hard and crunchy.
Description
Greengage fruit are identified by their round-oval shape and smooth-textured, pale green flesh; they are on average smaller than round plums but larger than mirabelle plums—usually between Template:Convert diameter. The skin ranges in colour from green to yellowish, with a pale blue "blush" in some cultivars; a few Reine Claudes, such as 'Graf Althanns', are reddish-purple due to crossbreeding with other plums.Template:Citation needed
Taxonomy
Greengage fruit originated in the Middle East.<ref name="Smith">Andrew F. Smith Template:Google books</ref> Though "Green Gages" were previously thought to have been first imported into England from France in 1724 by Sir William Gage, 7th Baronet,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> a greengage seed was found embeddedTemplate:Huh in a 15th-century building in Hereford.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Supposedly, the labels identifying the French plum trees were lost in transit to Gage's home at Hengrave Hall, near Bury St Edmunds.<ref>(Chambers's 20th Century Dictionary, 1903).</ref> More recent research indicates that it was a cousin and namesake Sir William Gage, 2nd Baronet of Hengrave who was responsible for introducing the greengage to England.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The name Reine Claude (French for "Queen Claude"), by which they are known in France, is in honour of the French queen Claude (1499–1524), Duchess of Brittany. A greengage is also called Template:Lang (French for "the good Queen") in France.<ref name="a">"Greengage" at Bartleby.com which provides the text from Brewer, E. Cobham. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898). Accessed 22 January 2007.</ref>
Although the Oxford English Dictionary regards "gage" and "greengage" as synonyms,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> not all gages are green, and some horticulturists make a distinction between the two words, with greengages as a variety of the gages, as Prunus domestica subsp. italica var. claudiana.<ref>Melinda Smale (Editor) Template:Google books</ref><ref name="Smith" />
Cultivation
In the Czech Republic, they are known as Template:Lang, in Poland as Template:Lang, in Hungary as Template:Lang,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in Slovakia as Template:Lang, in Slovenia as Template:Lang, and in Portugal as Template:Lang. They are widely grown, typically for eating out of hand or stewing in syrup to make a compote. In Portugal, however, they make up a delicacy invented by Dominican nuns in the 16th or 17th century (when confined to their convents) in the town of Elvas, where they are boiled in a sugary syrup several times, over the course of several weeks, to then be preserved whole in syrup or dried, coated in sugar and eaten either with a local dessert, sericaia, made from eggs, sugar, milk, cinnamon and flour or eaten with rich cheeses.
The green cultivars are bred more or less true from seed. Several similar cultivars produced from seedlings are now available; some of these include other plum cultivars in their parentage. Widely grown cultivars include: Template:Div col
- Template:Lang (Turkey)
- Boddarts Reneclode (Germany)
- Bryanston (UK)
- Cambridge Gage (UK)
- Denniston's Superb (US)
- Template:Lang or Göy Alça (Azerbaijan)
- Golden Transparent (UK)
- Graf Althanns Reneklode (Germany)
- Green Vanilla (Mount Pelion, Greece)
- Große Grüne Reneklode (Germany) / Reine Claude Verte (France)
- Laxton's Gage (UK)
- Laxton's Supreme (UK)
- Meroldts Reneclode (Germany)
- Rainha Cláudia (Portugal)
- Template:Lang (Italy)
- Reine Claude de Bavay (France)
- Reine Claude d'Oullins (France)
- Uhinks Reneklode (Germany)
- Washington (US)
Uses
They are considered to be among the finest dessert plums.<ref name="karp">Template:Cite news</ref> Anna Pavord calls them the "most ambrosial of all tree fruit",<ref>Anna Pavord, "Plum job: A juicy guide to greengages and plums" Independent (12 August 2011).</ref> and David Karp described them as "the best fruit in the world".<ref name=karp/> A greengage jam can be spread on toast, used in jam tarts or eaten with scones.<ref name=karp/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In culture
Greengages were cultivated in the American colonies, being grown on the plantations of American presidents George Washington (1732–1799) and Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826).
The fruit is referenced in the British novel The Greengage Summer (1958) by Rumer Godden, which was adapted into a film in 1961.
Greengages are mentioned in a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch as a form of dangerous fruit (as in a food fight).
More recently, the tree features in the novel The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (2017) by Iranian-Australian author Shokoofeh Azar.
References
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