Vetraplomme Plum

The Vetraplomme is an old plum variety from the Hardanger and Sognefjord regions, in the western part of the country.
The plums, of a transparent green colour and average to large in size, bring to mind the green Queen Claudia variety; they ripen fairly late. The tree grows in high altitudes and is adapted to steep, rocky lands; otherwise it is poorly adapted to the apple growing which is especially widespread in Hardanger.

Thanks to a scholarly initiative, this plum was recently rediscovered and studied also thanks to the use of modern bio-technical methods of classification and mapping. In the Njøs research centre, in the Sogn county, a few Vetraplomme trees are grown, in an attempt to recover this variety.

It is not presently at a commercial level in its historic area of provenance, where there are just a few trees that do not produce enough for the market.

In order to eat the fruit, it need to be frozen to free up the sugars in contains. It is traditionally eaten as a dessert in hot fruit soup. In ancient times it was also dried.

Today a small producer is trying to recover it to reintroduce it into the local cuisine.