[Yesterday’s run: 10 miles, today: rest day]
We have a “thicket” of wild plum trees on our property. The plum trees grow about head high, but there is some vining stuff and some poison ivy and various other trees and shrubs in there.
Over the years I have been trying to get rid of the other stuff and make more space for the plums.
This year we got a pretty good crop. Last year we had a wet rain when the blossoms were on and a middling crop. The year before that was worse.
The plums are grape-sized, and green turning to yellow when ripe. We picked them over the course of about a week, trying to get the ripe ones before they fell off. Friday I finished up and picked a few that were not completely ripe yet.
We have been following a recipe we found on the internet. Friday evening I boiled the plums and mashed them with a potato masher. Then we let the mash strain through a cheese cloth and a colander overnight. We had 9 cups of juice. Yesterday we boiled the juice, added 2T of pectin and 6-3/4 cups of white sugar. After boiling that for about 20 minutes, into the jars it went. Then we sealed the jars in a 10 minute boiling water bath. I put labels on the jars this morning.
We got almost 13 jars this year.
Now that the plums are off I can get in there and battle the vines and ivy some more. I think I am winning, slowly. The main enemy is Japanese Honeysuckle vine. If I ever get the invasion turned back I will have to do some pruning on the plum trees.
