The little Damson plum lost its popularity
Excerpt from account 2018-0090 by Paul-Louis Martin, September 2018
Directed by Martin Morais
Collection Musée de la mémoire vivante
Imports of fruit from warmer regions have had a major influence on the consumption of fruit grown in Quebec’s Côte-du-Sud region.
TRANSCRIPT
[Paul-Louis Martin is seated at a table and recounts the following]
The previous owner, from whom we bought the property, had uprooted all the plum trees in back.
Um… In answer to the question I asked him: “Why did you rip up those plum trees, M. Charest? Those plums were so good.” He said: “You have to realize that in the ‘50s when I was peddling my plums, peddling meant going door-to-door. When I peddled my plums along the range roads further inland, probably on horseback, people would say to me: Oh, M. Charest, we don’t want your little plums any more, now that we’ve got bananas and oranges.”
In other words, local berries had fallen from grace. People had found novelty from elsewhere.