Preserved Prunus mume fruits said to be a staple of traditional Japanese breakfast.

Hi Inky
Often old plum tree are transplanted from plum orchard wich is no longer productive. Those plume trees are pruned for gareden/ fram work for flower and old look. Frame work of fruits production of pruning of plum tree and garden use are different.

Branch of plum tree with flower/ flower buds are also marketed in Japan and china( peach)...........mike

Too late Mike. This forum died a while ago.

Inky

Too bad. where are we going ?

Yama Sensei;

www.jgarden.org ni ikimasho!!!!!

Michael

its funny how "this forum died a while ago" yet some people just cant refrain from logging on to see whats happening, (and adding their empty headed comments of course)

So contribute something Ron. Don't always play the role of the whiny critic. You MUST have some sort of knowledge that you are willing to impart or discuss. Why hang around here if not???

The reason that there has not been an original thought here for weeks is most of the contributors have gone elsewhere. I do check in time to time. Pretty pathetic I must say.....

Karma

Michael

Thanks for bringing your Karma with you Nacho. Pretty pathetic I would agree. Contribute to what ? The low intelligence comments of you and your cronies ? Yes I think that is what I am doing. Why hang around here if not eh Micheal ?

Ron: the demise has come about because of sniping, you know the guy hidden away with the long range rifle. Comments, pretty much like yours, do not encourage participation because they do not add anything. You were not the instigator of this behaviour but you have taken the side of those who are and so the forum has no content only one line sniping and you can see how this might not encourage someone to ask an intelligent question.
Michael does not mince his words and is brave enough to say what he means, a spade is a spade, and so his enjoinder requests that you put something up on the wall so that we might throw mud at it. Do you have such courage I wonder? Keep your head down low would be my advise.

Actually, the straying of this thread started with "Too late, Mike..." Crop the part starting with that post and it would be fine.

There is a bigger picture bboy and a history to go with it, Mike comes along with some interesting and knowledgable observations as he did in the past but between his past and the present the forum has changed, so it is not just about this thread.

Tiantong's first phrase of winter
Old plum tree bent an gnarled
all at once opens one blossom, two blossoms
three, four, five blossoms, uncountable blossoms
Not proud of purity
Not proud of fragrance
spreading, becoming spring,
blowing over grass and trees,
balding the head of a patch-robed monk.
Whirling, changing into wind, wild rain,
falling, snow all over the earth.
The old plumtree is boundless.
A hard cold rubs the nostrils.

Dogen

When Gautama's eyeball vanishes,
plum blossoms in snow, just one branch,
become thorn bushes, here, everywhere, right now.
Laughing, spring wind blowing madly.

Tiantong

One needs to know what comes before to find out where one is going...

Getting back to the original questions, ume fruits and trees are still very important to Japanese people. The fruit are picked green and made into pickled plums and plum wine (umeboshi and umeshu, respectively). Umeboshi are eaten throughout the year, typically with rice due to their strong sour taste. It is common to have them in soft rice cakes (onigiri) for example. I know people who eat umeboshi every morning without fail. It is believed to improve one's overall health, a sort of tonic. Umeshu is a very sweet alcoholic beverage that can be drank throughout the year but seems more popular just after the fruits ripen in late spring. People eagerly wait for their ume fruits to ripen so they can make umeshu.

Spring in Japan seems to be heralded by the flowering of ume trees. It is a sign that winter is weakening and that fine weather awaits. Ume flowers last much longer than any of the other subsequent Prunus species, and can be enjoyed for over a month long period of blooming. Currently the earliest cultivars are in full bloom, but most will be in their prime in another couple weeks. My own specimens have very fat, happy buds that are just waiting for a couple warm sunny days to explode into bloom. It is a happy season for sure!