During harvest, fresh plums are mechanically shaken off the trees and collected in blankets spread over the floor. Immediately after collection, plums are taken to the processing plant. There, they are washed, placed on large wooden trays and dehydrated in a series of operations. At the end of these processes, the product will no longer be plums but prunes. Approximately three kilos of plums are needed to produce one kilo of prunes. The next step is removing the pit if required. Prunes are classified by the method in which this is done, or more accurately, the kind of machine used. There are two

methods/machines, Ashlock and Elliot, named after their inventors. For both pitted and un-pitted prunes, the last step will be spraying with sorbic acid. This will preserve the end product and also make the skin shiny. Prunes are widely used in cooking both sweet and savoury dishes. Prunes are a frequent ingredient in North African tagines and other Mediterranean dishes and even in traditional Norwegian desserts. Prunes are also consumed as a snack and in cereal mixes, and used as an ingredient in the bakery and the confectionery industry.