Julia, we are growing a plum variety, Queen Garnet, that was originally grown for its anti-oxidant – anthocyanin – levels. The early plantings were aimed at the nutraceutical market. When grown well it is very dark fleshed and skinned.

Our in-house monitoring is showing a correlation between Brix and anthocyanin levels. When the Brix gets to 20+ we invariably have a dark anthocyanin rich piece of from. This is also usually the best eating piece of fruit as well. We have seen fruit with a Brix of 20 that was still inedible. However once the acid level dropped this becomes great eating.

We believe this high Brix fruit also has a greater nutrient content. We are growing under a full biological system. We have done some comparisons of our fruit against the same variety grown conventionally. We invariably have a higher Brix and this fruit has been measured at 8% heavier on a volume basis than the conventionally grown fruit.

We tend not to see any insect or fungal damage, but we cannot say for sure where Brix fits in there. I believe it to be a whole package.

The fresh market has picked on the health benefits / eating quality of the variety and they consistently wholesale and retail at twice the value of other plums.