then place them in the sun.

Dipping your plums is right providing they are very sweet, as they will
dry like prunes without removing the pit. If they are plums that are
commercially used for shipping, without enough sugar to dry as prunes,
the pit must be removed. Drying in this way, you do not need to use lye,
which is simply for the purpose of cracking the skin so that the
moisture can be more readily evaporated. There is no danger in using the
necessary amount of lye. Less is used than in making hominy.



The Sugar Prune.



What is the commercial value of the Sugar prune? Is there any other
early ripening variety better than the Sugar?

It is selling very well as a cured prune, and growers in the northern
bay counties especially have done so well that they are extending their
plantings. It is coarser in flesh than the French and generally flatter
in flavor when cooked and thus falls below the ideal of a cured prune,
but it has compensating characters, such as early ripening, with which
no other prune compares. The Sugar is also valuable as a shipping plum
to Eastern markets.



Glossing Dried Prunes.