Prunes used to play an important role in the Auvergnat diet. Every household had a plum tree or two in the orchard. Plums, mostly of the prune d’Agen or prune d’ente variety, were easily grown and easily dried (first in the sun, then in the bread oven during the last stages of its cooling). They were a useful storable source of energy and vitamins in the days before refrigerators came in. Hence the widespread use of prunes in Auvergnat recipes, some of them savoury: