Notes
I think this Alva Day image from August 29, 1940 shows the prune crop. Newspaper accounts make it clear there was a significant prune harvest locally. I have several trees in my yard which are remnants of the prune orchards on the east side of the city. They certainly grow well in this climate. I guess there isn't much of a market for prunes anymore.
Category: [Downtown Hood River]
Tags: 1940s agricuture Alva_Day prunes
Comments
I love the fresh Italian prune (plum) off of the old trees remaining in the area. Dried and canned....not so much. I always connect the season with Labor Day and the start of school. School always started after Labor Day. I had to walk quite a ways to catch the school bus. I started out with my shiny new black patent leather shoes. But at the end of the day, I had blisters on the back of my feet, from my new shoes. I would get off the bus and hobble up the road, and then stop at the prune trees to eat fresh, ripe prunes.
Our farm had at one time been a prune orchard and down the road was a large concrete prune dryer.
Did Hood River have a prune dryer?
L.E. on 1st July 2021 @ 7:19am
Don't know if there was a dryer in Hood River. The newspaper reported prune prices every summer, and there were always ads from a wholesaler looking to buy them. It seems like about 1920 was the height of this market.
ArthurB on 1st July 2021 @ 8:20am
Our first rental house in town, on Oak, has a massive Italian Plum tree. We stood on the 2nd story deck and picked 15 lbs of them, which was a tiny fraction of what grew on the whole 30 ft + tree.
Kyle on 1st July 2021 @ 9:11am
The plums on our plum tree, (not Italian) are absolutely fried from this recent hot spell. They ripen in July.
L.E. on 1st July 2021 @ 12:46pm