A sinkful of freshly washed plums!

Oh the possibilities!

The plums are later this year - probably because of the late spring - but they are ripe now and the tree is loaded. 

So far all I have done with them besides eating them fresh is make a plum cobbler and I added some to my morning oatmeal. 

I'm not really sure what I will all do with this years haul but I'm sure some will end up as jam, I'll freeze some as both slices and as puree in ice cube trays (to use in smoothies), I'll dry some, and I'll probably make some sorbet. 

Any other ideas?  What is your favorite way to use fresh plums?

Look what I saw when I opened my curtains this morning!

My plum tree in full bloom! In previous years, it bloomed in Mid-May and Mid-April - so this is the earliest it has ever bloomed! Another sign that Spring is here to stay!

A Typical Day in my Harvest Kitchen

Saturday was a busy day in my kitchen. I didn't take pictures of everything - like the last 2 buckets of plums that we picked - but this gives you an idea.

The cucumbers are coming strong. We are picking this many or more every day. The neighbors are starting to hide when they see us coming with cucumbers to give away!

I made another batch of plum jam.

I made some yummy plum sorbet

And I made a batch of relish

Plum Sorbet Recipe

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup water

Combine on stove and heat until sugar dissolves.

Mix in 1 1/2 cups plum puree and 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (optional).

Pour into ice cream maker and let it do its thing.

My monkey picking plums!

I haven't shared any photos of Andy helping in the garden in some time so when I caught him climbing the plum tree and picking plums for me, I just had to grab the camera.

He blends in pretty good.

Here he is all serious about picking (he did pick a whole pail full for me).

But here, he is getting a little silly - notice the half eaten plum in his mouth!

The plum tree is having a very good year! That kind of takes the sting away from the peach tree that died - again. I don't think I will replace it again.

Food I put up this week

Here is a load of sliced plums on my dehydrator.

Here is a close up of the same plums.

And here they are all ready to come off - see how much they have shrunk and how far apart they are now.

Canned green beans ready for the pantry.

Plum Jam

I just love taking these

and turning them into this!

This was the first batch I made of plum jam from my plum tree.

Last year we got enough plums for fresh eating and I made some fruit leathers.

This year the tree is loaded and there are going to be plums for lots of things.

I may have to find some new plum recipes - anyone have a favorite they would like to share?

To make this plum jam I pretty much followed the directions on the Sure-Jell box (the lower sugar one). Except that instead of finely chopping the plums, I just quartered them and then when they were soft I used a hand blender to puree them.

Plums contain a lot of pectin so you can make plum jam or jelly without adding any commercial pectin at all - but since I haven't done that in years, I stuck with the sure thing for my first batch.

It is so yummy!

Wow! My plum tree is blooming early!

Isn't that a beautiful site? Last year I posted pics of the plum tree blooming on May 13th - it is blooming a full month earlier this year - and it is loaded with blooms.

Yummmmmm, I can just taste those fresh plums. I can't wait.

Plum Harvest

I picked the last of the plums yesterday. This is the first real year we have had plums.

These are from the tree that Dan planted for my birthday 3 years ago (in hot August!). We had a couple plums on it last year. This year we had a decent harvest - although the tree still wasn't loaded.

The plums are very juicy and tasty - and considering that I did not spray it at all - even with organic sprays - very few of them had worms in them. Overall they are great looking plums.

Making Fruit Leathers (Fruit Roll Ups)

I made fruit leathers this past weekend. The first batch I am sure of many this year. They are really quite simple to make.

You just take fruit puree - sweeten it to your taste - add optional spices - and dry in a dehydrator or on plastic wrap lined cookie sheets in a very low oven (150 degrees at the most) until done.

I used plums as the main ingredient in these. I added a handful of raspberries, a handful of currants and 1/2 of an apple as well as some raw sugar and cinnamon.

Here they are almost dry in my dehydrator.

They are ready when you can easily pull them up from the plastic like this.

I cut them into wedges.

I stacked the wedges with wax paper between - who needs evil red 40 - these are a nice bright red without anything artificial added!

Won't be long now

until the plums are ripe. There are only 7 on the tree - this will be the first year it produces. Regular readers might remember that Dan planted it for me two years ago for my birthday. I'm hoping for another fruit tree for my birthday this year. Hard to believe I will be 50 in less than two weeks!

It's looking like it may be a good gardening year after all!

We had a late start and now it is just hot but the garden seems to be weathering it all. And after all, isn't there always something about the weather to complain about? Every year it is too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry or too something.

Mostly my garden is doing great. I had spotty germination on the parsnips and some of my carrots and Andy's sunflower fort has seen better years - but overall it is doing well. We have been eating lettuce and radishes from the garden for some time.

The strawberries were great this year. The currants and raspberries are loaded. The apple tree doesn't have any fruit this year and it looks like I have lost the peach tree - the green that was there has shriveled up and died. But I keep watering the tree hoping beyond hope that there is some life left in there somewhere! LOL! My plum tree has plums for the first time - I can only find 3 - so not a huge harvest but I'll take what I can get and it is still a very young tree.

I snapped a few pics of the garden this morning -



2 views of my raised bed from opposite angles.


Wayahead Tomato


The dead peach tree.

Pushing myself to Garden

What is wrong with me? I love to garden but this year I am just not doing it. I pushed myself to get out today for a little while. I don't know if it is just that I have so much else going on or if it is the weather.

But I did have a good gardening day today.

I planted:
Carrots - Scarlet Nantes, Tendersweet, Nelson Hybrid, & Atomic Red
Radishes - Easter Egg Mix
Leaf Lettuce - Lettuce Blend
Parsnips - Hollow Crown
Beets - Red Ace Hybrid

I also set my tomatoes out for a few hours today to get them used to the weather and wind so I can plant them out soon. They have grown so tall that they are touching the lights - the weather needs to cooperate so I can get them out in the ground!

I also took a couple of pictures -


The plum tree is blooming. I am hoping for plums this year - it would be the first year - last year we had a couple of blooms, but no plums.


And strawberry blossoms.

May 2, 2007

What a beautiful spring morning!

Red Acre Cabbage - I transplanted this to the garden last evening.

Long Island Improved Brussells Sprouts. Also transplanted last evening. It did fine with the cool overnight temps last night.

The plum tree Dan planted for my birthday last summer is looking very healthy. It not only survived the extreme summer heat and drought when it was planted, but also the cruel winter and now look - it even has a blossom way up on top!

And of course, it wouldn't be spring without strawberries - I can't wait.

The garden this morning

The lettuce is surviving the transplant and looking good.

The apple tree is going to be covered with blossums soon! I'm so excited about this since we only got 4 apples last year.

The Black Raspberries I moved a few weeks ago seem to be doing fine and not showing any signs of transplant shock.

The Plum Tree Dan planted for me last August seems to have survived the unusual weather and is coming to life.

And the plants in the basement are thriving and will be ready to plant outside as soon as the weather warms up. Everything is up now except the green cabbage and chives which did not sprout at all. I may or may not replant them. I haven't decided yet.

Tree is planted

He worked until after dark on it last night wanting to beat the storm that was coming (he did). So here is the tree this morning. Looks great sweetheart - I love my plum tree - what a perfect present.

Planting a plum tree

Dan worked hard on getting the tree planted for me - I didn't do any of the work - here he set the tree in to see if the hole is deep enough (it was too deep).

My birthday present!

My birthday is not for another week - and yesterday Dan brings home a plum tree for me!