Inconvenient Plums

[msconduct]

Just when I'm going to the beach at the end of the week, my damson tree decided today to have all its plums in exactly ripe for picking condition. I net the bottom half of the tree and let the birds have the top half, and in return they let me know when to pick. I glanced out the window today and saw eight birds in the tree nomming away. A) adorable and B) uh-oh. No time to waste.

Fruit picking always sounds to me like you're swanning dreamily through a picturesque orchard in a floaty dress and a big hat, delicately plucking down a fruit from time to time and placing it in a quaint cane basket with trailing ribbons. Of course, if you've ever done it, you'll know that it's actually hard, sweaty, scratchy work, usually at the hottest time of the year. I'm only grateful I looked out the window at a time of the day that part of the tree was in shade.

Damsons are the bestest ever trees, especially for a terrible gardener like myself. They literally require not a single bit of maintenance, they're hardy and disease-free and they produce an absolutely stunning amount of fruit that makes the best jam in the world (if you like tart jam, which I do and so do my nearest and dearest). But hoo boy, they make you work for it. I sweatily and scratchily picked a total of 20 kg (44 pounds) of fruit, in a sweaty, scratchy hour. (And there was at least as much as that left on the top.)

So I had the plums, but then I had another problem: I had the plums. Normally I throw them in the freezer and make jam at a nicer time of year to have the kitchen hot than a humid February. But this year I picked way more fruit than I usually do because my mother has developed a damson jam addiction, which I'm more than happy to facilitate (the more calories I can get in her the better). Add that to the fact that I've topped up my freezer with as much chicken as I can squeeze into it in case bird flu arrives here, and I knew I had no chance of freezing more than a couple of kilos. So industrial level jam-making this week it is.

But argh, it's SO MUCH WORK. You're supposed to make jam in small quantities, but I cheated by looking online until I could find someone who would let me half-fill my Kilner pan (that's three kilos). The laugh was on me, though, as it burned on the bottom so I had to boil biological washing powder in it for ages to get the burn off.

I've tried various recipes, and the best one I've found makes you cook the jam over a low heat for a couple of hours: this means it always sets and keeps very well, but...it takes a couple of hours. And I've still got 17 kilos to go. It's going to be a very busy week.

Comments

[meowmensteen]

I had three plum trees in my back yard growing up, so I am very familiar with ripe plums, picking them, and having to figure out what to do with them all... and cleaning up rotten plums off the ground before the flies come. Also watching the raccoons get drunk off the rotten plums. Plum cobbler was my favorite.

[msconduct]

Aw, I wish we had raccoons! I don't think I'm going to get any rotten ones as the birds are all over them.

[meowmensteen]

I always call raccoons the north American monkey, since we don't have monkeys. They're a silly bunch.

[spiffikins]

Oh wow - that is a LOT of plums! And of course they all are ripe at the same time!

I remember a few times when we would end up with a big pile of fruit that needed to be processed Right Now - it is a ton of work - good luck!

[msconduct]

Thanks! I've done three batches/15 jars now, but there are soooo many left....

[spiffikins]

Are you doing a water bath or pressure canning? How big are your jars?

I tried to make jam one time for Xmas presents - I used the smallest half-pint jam jars, and my tallest pot - and *barely* had enough space to get enough water over top of the jars. Plus, my stove is glass top and it feels like a bigger pot of water would be too heavy and break my stove - I'm not sure what the weight limit is!

[msconduct]

Neither, I just sterilise the jars then put the lid when everything is hot and the lid schlooops down and seals. In a best case scenario. Actually this year I'm using a lot of things like peanut butter jars - I use a jame recipe you boil very gently for a couple of hours and it lasts forever even without full canning. I was all ready this year to use my stockpot for a water bath, as it's so tall as previously discussed, but the plums ripened faster than I thought they would and I didn't have time to get extra seals for the jars I have.

[spiffikins]

Oh that makes sense, I guess all the sugar helps it last a long time!

I remember when my mom would can things and all the jars would sit on the counter top as she pulled them out of the pot, and all day long we would hear that schloop noise as each one sealed. She would eventually go around and check them all - usually there was one that didn't seal - which wasn't a bad ratio given how many jars we would be processing in our batch!

[msconduct]

This one's actually really low sugar - 300g per 1kg of fruit rather than the usual 1:1 - but it's the long boil that seems to do the trick.

[kaishin108]

You are so industrious! I only know how to make 'safe' jam as freezer jam.

What a good idea to freeze a lot of chicken. It might be time to buy a deep freeze on this end. Hope you end up with a lot of high calorie jam for Mama.

[msconduct]

Fifteen jars so far, still going! If it makes you feel any better, I've had a lot of jam failures. I've tried the thermometer method and the seeing if it wrinkles on a cold saucer method, but I've still had problems with it being under or overdone. And I've cooked it on the stovetop and in the microwave and neither is easier than the other in that respect, although at least when you microwave it it doesn't burn. (If I hadn't read the tip about boiling water in it with biological washing poder I don't know what I would have done as nothing else makes any impact on it. This is great for any kind of burnt-on thing - I've used it in my casserole dish as well.) Fortunately there's often something you can do to rescue jam, even if it's a giant pain like reboiling it all.

[kaishin108]

What do you use to thicken it, fruit pectin? I can never get it to thicken properly.

That is a lot 15 jars. I read your more recent post about the rest in the freezer, happy you found the room!

[msconduct]

I'm lucky there as damsons are very high in pectin. If you're making a jam with fŕuit that has pectin in the pits, like plums or apricots, you can include the pits in a muslin bag as you boil the jam.

[kaishin108]

Oh what a good idea. Maybe that is my problem though, I always end up making some type of berry jam.