32. Cambridge Gage
Season : Relatively late, flowers April, harvest September
Pollination: Partially self fertile, but crops will benefit from a different variety nearby. Group D
Equally good as a fresh dessert plum or for culinary purposes.
Prunus domestica 'Cambridge Gage'
The fruits are smaller than your average plum but that's as expected for a Gage.
The fruit colour is yellow / green, turning slightly more yellow and pink as it ripens, they have a definite bloom to the skin.
The flesh is yellow / green and the stone comes away relatively easily.
The taste is sweet and mellow but perhaps lacking the luscious complex flavour of a really ripe Old Greengage
Cambridge Gage is thought to be a seedling of Old Green Gage, and was grown commercially in the Cambridge (as in the county town this time!) area by the jam manufacturers Chivers in the early 20th century. It was probably discovered at the end of the 19th century.