Earthbound Farm Plums“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” So said Shakespeare through the lips of the lovely and tragic Juliet. Would this scene have worked as well if he’d replaced rose with prune? A prune by any other word would taste as sweet doesn’t have quite the same passionate impact.

Lately, I seem to be obsessed with dried fruit as literary metaphor (apricots, anyone?). What would Freud say? Or Jung? Or Carmen Miranda? Maybe I’m craving healthier snacks after all that beef jerky I ate last month.

A prune by any other word would be as ugly. Or would it? Dried plum or prune? That is the question.

Prune. Uttering the word brings to my mind brave senior citizens battling irregularity the natural way. It also sounds like prude; a wrinkled nose condemning a double entendre or bawdy joke. On the flipside, what if the snake had offered Eve a bite of his prune? “Eh, no thanks fella, I’m good.” Alas, it was the apple instead. For want of a prune, paradise was lost.

Whatever happened to prunes anyway, and when did people stop calling them prunes? According to the California Dried Plum Board, we here in the U.S. refer to them as dried plums while the rest of the world calls them prunes. Typical of us. Give something a more pleasant name and it’s no longer a turnoff.

Dried plums. Now there’s a pleasing couple of words. Doesn’t sound so bad now.

The first dried plum out of the bag of Earthbound Farm Organic Dried Plums was sweet and juicy. After my last encounter with the very effective properties of fiber in dried fruit, I only consumed five pieces. Despite the improved nomenclature, dried plums (or if you’re snacking on these while out of the country: Prunes!) still aren’t the most appealing snack to look at, but as the package claims, each piece was truly “moist, chewy, and delightfully sweet.” Truth in advertising, yes indeed.

The 6 oz. package I sampled cost $.99 at my local supermarket, though the selection was limited to dried plums, cranberries, and dates. I don’t care for the latter two, but if you do (and if they’re anything like the plums), I suggest you try them.

The Earthbound Farm website is jam-packed with information about their many fruits and vegetables, all of which are 100% organic. If dried plums be the food of love, snack on! Just don’t judge these books by their covers.

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