Rumblings: Preserve us

According to some of the country's largest stone-fruit producers in Prince Alfred Hamlet near Ceres, the heart of the deciduous fruit-growing region in the Western Cape, South Africans have yet to find a true affinity for the humble plum.

I was told the bulk of the harvest actually leaves our shores, headed for more-appreciative European markets.

This got me thinking about my favourite fruit, the plum, which offers that unique sweet/sharp contrast.

Dip into the history of the fruit and it becomes clear why it has always come off second best. The plum has never been allowed to just be a plum. Even the word has long been a misnomer. In the Middle Ages, "plum" was used to describe any dried fruit used in cooking and the English plum pudding - what we know as Christmas pud - never ever included a plum in the ingredients.

Considered one of the oldest cultivated fruits, plums put me in mind of a youngster with middle-child syndrome. Never quite able to compete with its siblings, the peach and the nectarine, the plum always seems to come off second best. Even as it ripens, the plum is covered with an unattractive, dusty white protective coating (which, incidentally, is harmless and rubs off), as if to say: "Please don't pick me."

One can only feel pity for a fruit that, once dried, loses its identity completely and becomes a prune, dark in colour and shrivelled; or worse, when juiced, it becomes an antidote for constipation.

In an attempt to gather some glory for the plum, a new initiative is being launched this week: to encourage children to eat more plums, the growers have developed a new variety known as the plumcot, to be marketed as "dinosaur eggs" (see below). Plumcots are the size of tennis balls and each will carry a dinosaur sticker - a lure for kids to try the fruit.

It figures, just as the plum is about to come into its own, it loses its identity to an ancient vertebrate!

Yet, there are many good reasons to eat plums. Rich in health-giving antioxidants, they contain high levels of vitamin C - some say even more than oranges. Loaded with fibre, they are a low-GI fruit, which means they will give a feeling of fullness for longer. Best of all, they are cheap. So eat plums - lots of them, before they disappear like the dinosaurs.