When someone asks if you want some plums, you say yes right?!
I have learned a lesson, always ask how many they have for you!
I had a tonne of plums to do after "picking" (dh just shook it onto a large tarp) a large tree full of plums. These are beautiful, but plentiful!
So, I started with canning them.
I washed them and shoved them whole into jars. I boiled up a syrup (2 C Sugar to 4 C water) and poured it onto my jars. Sealed with a snap and ring...
...and placed them into a boiling water canner.
The trick in using one of these, if you haven't before, is that there is a rack in there. This keeps the jars from being in direct contact with the bottom of the pan. This is good. Fill with warm, not hot water, and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, boil the plums for 20 min (for quarts, 15 for pints)
Remove from the water and let cool 24 hours on your counter before moving them. If they didn't "snap" then place in the fridge and use within the next week or so.
I think that they are so incredibly pretty.
Once they are all sealed, they should last for at least a year on your shelf. I know they last MUCH longer, I have had fruit that is older than 5 years that has been bottled, but that is what the health and safety stuff says.
So, after 27 jars of that...because that is all I had left, I was still hip deep in plums.
I decided to try dehydrating some...because that is what I do.
I had those little puppies on the dehydrator for 48 hours and they were still not dry. So off to the garbage they went. I was sad, but it was worth the experiment.
So then I was all out of ideas...what to do next? I had a whole passel of plums left and no ideas. I was talking to my Mom and she says, "well, why not freeze them?" Like DUH! I didn't even think of that!
So I pitted them all (luckily my slaves were here, and I have lots of cherry pitters that worked fine) and plopped them into a bag with some sugar.
They froze so nice too.
I am going to use these, both the frozen and canned in plum cake, A to Z bread, plum upside down cake (substitute plums for pineapple), plum cobbler, and more.
How about you? What do you do with your plums?
Cheers
3 comments:
That is a lot of plums! They look so beautiful canned. Jake was so funny this morning when he was checking his email and blog. He turns to me and says: "Mommy have you checked out Welcome to the Madness yet today? Look at all those plums!" He thinks you canning is the coolest thing and checks your blog more than he checks mine. I guess he already knows what is going to be on mine since he is living it. :) We finally have our days on the calendar to can later this month. I will let you know how it goes.
My kiddos love it when we get enough plums for me to make juice. I seriously have to hide it so they don't drink it all and make themselves sick!
I've never had enough plums to 'do anything' with, would love to though! My kids eat them like they are going out of style though. They look so gorgeous in the jars!!
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