I’m a native of up-country. The up-country in Myanmar is arid, but shades of toddy palm and sturdy Htanaung, acacia Leucaphloea make it bearable. More than that, the greening of the arid zones is getting momentum with satisfactory results.

In the up-country there are various plants endemic to the region. Of all the plants, plum is invaluable priceless. Plum brings in good income to the locals there. A bush of plum usually bears twenty baskets of plum. When plums are ripen, the job of plucking and drying in the sun begins in earnest.

One can see plums spread in open spaces among toddy palms. Plums are usually sunned for two days before being processed into various products.

Plums are picked as summer sets in. Plum processing cottage industries are also set to work in following. The plum processing mill is manufactures locally and needs not much space. However, the production rate is quite sizeable. Fleshy plums are selected to make jams. Plum stones have kernels that are useful for medicinal purpose. Plum stones are cracked by the mill and then the kernels separated.

Plum stone kernels are very popular. They have domestic as well as foreign markets. The fleshy plums are processed to get the flesh for jams. The plum stones and not so fleshy plums are broken up in the mill and the kernels extracted. The broken up plum stones are sifted in order to separate the kernels. After extracting the kernels, the remaining waste can be used as fuel or fertilizer.

Extracting the kernel has also its folksy aspect. While sifting, cleansing the kernel from the waste, damsels work in unison, cooperatively and joyously. Two and half baskets of plum can produce one kilogram of kernel. In the up-country, plum is being grown systematically. It is a moderate commercial undertaking suitable to the up-country. So it is precious and after all the golden plum job for us.