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Store bought plums are picked well before they’re ripe. They ripen while being shipped and sitting in storage. They’re not given the time to create and store more sugars like ripe plums freshly picked off the tree. Closest you’ll get would be going to an orchard or farm market and getting fresh picked.
Fresh fruit is going to be better than transported fruit. Fresh fruit from the source (like plums from a tree) are radically different from fruit bought in the store. I’m low-key fruititarian during certain times of the year in California. It’s part of eating with the seasons.
Because this is 2025 and all the crap in agriculture makes it worse. I bought some tangerines last month. Ate one and threw the rest out. Not at all like before. And no it is not just ‘age’ either. They were not the same.
You likely picked them ripe or very near ripe. Store bought are picked quite pre ripe so the sugars never really develop in the fruit. That’s done so they won’t be over ripe when delivered to stores.
Here’s what you going to do you are going to drive down out in to the countryside until you see a roadside farmstand. That is where you will find the best fruit. I am talking peaches and plums so juicy that the juice runs down your arm and you get all sticky from eating it.
It’s because they are not the same plums. Plums come in a huge variety of cultivars that all taste different. The one you had on your tree growing up is absolutely 100% not going to be the very specifically curated commercial plum tree that’s designed for very specific travel and ripening properties.
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Our taste buds change and dull with age
Because everything is worse now.
I think that they’ve just been breeding plums to travel, not to taste like plums. The ones I find up here in Maine look more like prunes.
Why aren’t things the same from 40 years ago? FFS Can’t imagine.
Store bought plums are picked well before they’re ripe. They ripen while being shipped and sitting in storage. They’re not given the time to create and store more sugars like ripe plums freshly picked off the tree. Closest you’ll get would be going to an orchard or farm market and getting fresh picked.
Fresh fruit is going to be better than transported fruit. Fresh fruit from the source (like plums from a tree) are radically different from fruit bought in the store. I’m low-key fruititarian during certain times of the year in California. It’s part of eating with the seasons.
Because this is 2025 and all the crap in agriculture makes it worse. I bought some tangerines last month. Ate one and threw the rest out. Not at all like before. And no it is not just ‘age’ either. They were not the same.
Those from the 80s will be rotten by now
You likely picked them ripe or very near ripe. Store bought are picked quite pre ripe so the sugars never really develop in the fruit. That’s done so they won’t be over ripe when delivered to stores.
Are they the same plums? We have a different variety here in Georgia than the ones from the supermarket. Half the size but much sweeter.
Probably because those plums are almost fifty years old.
I don’t think they last that long
Here’s what you going to do you are going to drive down out in to the countryside until you see a roadside farmstand. That is where you will find the best fruit. I am talking peaches and plums so juicy that the juice runs down your arm and you get all sticky from eating it.
Gen Z plums are lazy.
There are some awesome backyard plums to grow. If you have space you could fix this!
If you’re anything like me, it’s because you’ve done irreparable damage to your taste buds through years of drinking and smoking.
>Why don’t plums taste like the ones I picked from trees in the 80s?
Your taste buds are almost 45 years older.
It’s because they are not the same plums. Plums come in a huge variety of cultivars that all taste different. The one you had on your tree growing up is absolutely 100% not going to be the very specifically curated commercial plum tree that’s designed for very specific travel and ripening properties.