Wild Plums!

[NH Homesteader]

Goats never have anything to do with trees failing. Ever... Hehe

 

[baymule]

It’s 2018 wild plum season! We have gone picking several times. We still have plum jelly from last year, but the County is mowing the sides of the roads and trimming back all the overgrown tree branches that stick out in the roads. So we have been picking all we can, some plum trees have already been trimmed back to the fences. Nooooooo!!!!!!

We are glad to see the trees trimmed back. In lots of places the tree branches scrape the sides of our vehicles.

We picked a LOT of plums from a fence row that belongs to George. He is a bachelor, never married, living in the old house his grandfather built. We took him a couple of pints of plum jelly from last year and he was thrilled. He told us today that it was better than good, it was DEELICIOUS!

This is what we picked 4 days ago.

This is what we picked today. I sorted them for ripeness and have some cooking now. Smells so good!

I have 1 1/2 gallons of juice in the refrigerator so far. With what we picked today, I should get another 1 or 2 gallons. I’m going tocan the juice in quart jars. If I want to, later I can make jelly or use the juice to make a delicious drink.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

@baymule Yum! Ive got plums about that size and color on my counter. Im not sure if they are similar, but ours are supposed to be green plums, which seem to be popular around here. (They're supposed to still be green when ripe.) But the most recent ones I got were still kind of hard.(I didn't pick them. I got them at a corner stand.) They turned the same color as yours when I left them there a day or so. I really like plums. We used to have several big trees when we lived in Washington State.

Today, I got a call to go help pick peaches. I didnt even realize they were ripe in our area yet. But we recently had a lot of rain, and these trees were so loaded the branches were breaking. Some are still small and not quite ripe, but we picked all of them on the broken branches to get them off the ground. Even the small ones have a good flavor. Woohoo, God is so very very good!

 

[CrealCritter]

American persimmons have tiny little green blossoms, ya' gotta be looking for them. They are not self fruitful, so there are male trees that will bloom, but never bear fruit. If there are no male trees near, the female trees will not bear. American persimmons are related to Ebony, thus the wood is very hard.

I made 2 batches of wild plum jam yesterday. Dang that is good! I have not used Pomona's I will have to look into that. I went picking day before yesterday and visited George a few minutes. he had a friend visiting and George told his friend Chuck how good my plum jam was. Chuck asked to buy some, LOL. The conversation continued, with Chuck telling me that he had a pear tree that is loaded and I can have the pears. I was delighted.

After I picked plums, I told George that I had some plum jam for him and I'd be right back with it. I packed him up a half dozen jars and one of peach jam. We also took 2 jars of plum and one of peach for his friend Chuck. George tried to pay us for them, we refused.

Went picking today, they are about done, maybe 1 or 2 more pickings. We visited in the middle of the road with people who stopped to ask what we were doing. LOL George came by and said the peach jam was good.

We dug up a couple of small plum trees about a foot tall. Then we went elderberry hunting. We dug up 7 plants and I cut blooms off quite a few plants. I will either dehydrate the flowers or make a cordial, kinda leaning towards a cordial. That would make a good hot toddy! We have the elder and plum trees soaking in a bucket until we set them out this evening. There is a big patch of elders that we picked last year, the canes are 12 to 15' tall. After the berries are done this year, we are going to dig up some of them too.

Bay you can root shoots off most any tree with rooting hormone, some potting soil and a plastic bag. Take your pocket knife, score a good straight shoot (sucker) or small new limb and dust with rooting hormone. Fit the plastic bag with very moist potting soil and tie it as tight as you can to retain moisture. Check it in a 8 to 10 weeks, there should be small roots growing where you scored it with your pocket knife and dusted with rooting hormone. Then just take and cut the limb or shoot free below the roots and plant as you would any other tree. I've done this several times with fruit trees and it works pretty well. It helps if the limb or shoot is in the shade most of the day, so on the north side of the tree.

 

[CrealCritter]

Thought of you @baymule when I seen this recipe ---> https://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques35.asp

 

[baymule]

We picked what is probably the last of the plums this year. I cooked some, left more out to finish ripening. Probably in a few days I'll make jam.

 

[baymule]

I opened a jar of the plum that didn't set up and it is like a soft spread. Not syrup and not jelly, somewhere in between. Not syrupy enough to redo, so I'm going to use it just like it is. I dug out some on a spoon.... it is so good!

 

[Britesea]

Sounds perfect for thumbprint cookies...

 

[sumi]

@baymule that looks wonderful!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Now that's my kinda grandmother!