a good season for Agen prunes

Only the prune d’ente can give rise to Agen prunes, the black pearl of Lot-et-Garonne. In her producer store, Roucadil, in Villeneuve-sur-Lot (Lot-et-Garonne), Sophie Leeb knows all the virtues. She declines it in all its forms: coated with chocolate, flavored with Armagnac or simply plain. “It is best to consume it every morning for breakfast, since one prune a day equals health forever.”she notes.

This year the prunes will be good. The plum did not suffer from the heat wave or the drought. With the sun, the fruits are gorged with sugar. “The sweeter it is, the greater the caliber of the prune will be.“, explains Pascal Beq, plum grower in Castella (Lot-et-Garonne). He will harvest several tons. Thanks to an early maturity, he started picking earlier than in previous years, like the 900 other producers of the IGP Pruneaux d’Agen France is the world’s third-largest producer, with 400,000 tonnes harvested each year.The plums are sorted according to their sugar content, then arranged and stored in ovens at 80°.