Bullaces are Britain’s latest culinary plums, ripening in October or November, alongside sloes. Common or black bullaces are similar to sloes, which have remained popular because of sloe gin. They are a little larger, however, which makes it possible to cook with them. There are four varieties of bullace: black, Shepherd’s, golden and Langley. All taste rich and tangy and the dark-skinned ones are like damsons, only more tannic. Because the fruits are small, it pays to use them in recipes that don’t ask you to stone them. The flesh is rather solid and so high in pectin that it’s a good idea to combine them with other fruits when jelly-making. Bullace trees can be viciously thorny, particularly if they have been pruned, so plant them in the hedgerow, not the orchard. They will interbreed with other plums that blossom at the same time, resulting in new varieties with different textures and flavours. A few specialist fruit nurseries sell the named varieties and local populations of hedgerow bullaces vary considerably.
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