At last, the moment has arrived; the plums are ripe. For weeks, I’ve been watching our Victoria plum tree, keenly charting the journey of its fruit from hard green, bitter baubles to soft, purple luxuriance. Lacking patience, I wolfed down quite a few before they were fully plump; but once you’ve tasted the melting, yielding opulence of a perfectly ripe plum, anything else is a shock.