Help: I'm dealing with hundreds of ripe plums
Help: I'm dealing with hundreds of ripe plums
Last fall I moved into an apartment with a plum tree in the front yard. I don't know anything about plants or trees or fruit, and now that summer is here there are hundreds of plums dangling off this tree. They're attracting millions of ants, as well as raccoons, possums, rats, and a few bold humans who I've caught plucking from the tree.
I guess I like plums? But there's around a week left until they all fall to the ground and become a horrifying slurry, and I'd rather avoid that.
Any suggestions?
TLDR: Have plum tree, it's bursting with plums, no idea what to do in order to avoid ant apocalypse
Pick them all, seed them and make a shitton of plum jam
Yep, this is probably the best bet. Some other options: ferment them to make wine or pit and freeze the flesh to drop into smoothies or make juice out of on demand.
Having never made a jam or a jelly of any kind, I'm hesitant to try this, but it might be a good option. Do you have a favorite plum jam recipe?
Not the original commenter, but it's really simple, you just need to mix fruit and sugar in a 1:1, 2:1 or 3:1 ratio and add a splash of water, and bring it to a low boil under constant stirring with a wooden spatula. Once all sugar is dissolved, take it off the heat and stir in some gelatine (powder or sheets - if you opt for sheets, soak them in cold water for 90 secs prior). Keep stirring until the gelatine is thoroughly dissolved as well, then put it into jars, pop on the lid while steaming hot, and chuck it in cold water for a minute to create a pressure seal. Then let it fully cool down at room temperature.
For plum jam particularly, I prefer a bit higher acidity so I'll go for a 3:1 fruit to sugar ratio, but that's your call, really. If you want to add some extra flavor notes, you can throw a handful of cloves in when cooking the mix (just get them out before filling it into the jars), and then after cooking, put a cinnamon stick into the jar right before you throw it into the water. That can remain inside until you first open the jar later.
I'd suggest to experiment around at first with smaller batches to get your preferred mix, and then go all in.
Well the good news if that with the literal hundred plums you have, you can afford to "waste" plums until you figure out how to make proper jam! :)
Plums contain enough pectin to turn into jam with only sugar and maybe some lemon juice (for acidity) added, though if you're doing this the first time you probably want to add extra pectin. Over here that's generally done by buying sugar that's laden with pectin, in other places you buy the stuff without included sugar, I recommend to search for recipes on your local internet. If you have a plum tree in front of your window someone in your country will know how to turn supermarket ingredients into jam.
Gelatine in jam is, IMNSHO, a travesty. You're not making jello.
Wine.
Holy shit. This might be the winner
It can be difficult to make it clear due to the pectins, but it doesn't affect the flavor at all.
It can be difficult to make it clear due to the pectins, but it doesn't affect the flavor at all.
I'd be making jelly or wine like there was no tomorrow. Plum wine in special is delicious.
There's a recipe here, if you want; it works for fruits in general, not just grapes. Note: most equipment can be improvised with some redneck engineering, for example my water lock is simply a piece of flexible tube forced into a U shape with an old hair rubber band, and filled with water.
You could also share the plums with neighbours. Bonus points if you manage to barter them for something else.
If you want to use them up, this website has a bunch of suggestions.
If you just want to get rid of them, why not encourage the bold humans who've been plucking? Put up a sign saying "Free plums!", I bet it would be picked clean within a day or two.
It never even occurred to me to put a sign up advertising the bounty of the tree. This might be simplest. But on the off chance no one takes me up on that, I'll still have almost 300 plums. I'll check out that webzone, thanks
I've heard horror stories of people who do this, like, cutting down branches and trampling yards
You’ve already gotten advice on preserving, but what about sharing/donating the bounty?
Some cities have public portals where you can post the location of your fruit tree and indicate people can help themselves. There’s also this webpage. And failing that, you could reach out to a local foodbank - they may be able to have volunteers come collect the fruit?
Jam, seriously. Plum jam is amazing.
Yup, and jelly.
search for tkemali sauce recipes. It's a Georgian plum sauce that is great with meats and vegetables. I've used it on pork, chicken, fried potatoes. In Georgia, it is about as common as ketchup is in the USA. There is red tkemali made from ripe plums and green made from unripened. Green is my favorite, but both are really good. I think the plums used in Georgia are a wild plum, but I made some last month with red plums I bought at Kroger. You might have to visit an international market to get some of the spices.
edit: recipe that i used, minus a couple spices i didn't find in time, but it still turned out good.
You probably have food banks in your area which would be delighted to get some!
If avoiding the ant-ageddon is your main goal, pick them and give them away. Free plums sign like others have said? Idk if I'd expect someone to pick them though, I'd pick them and bag them myself.
If it's like what do you DO with a million plums after they're picked, I'm plum out of ideas besides give them away. The jam and wine suggestions sounds interesting. Plum pudding mayhaps?
I probably should have planned for this weeks ago. Things are gonna get sticky
I’m sorry but this response is cracking me up.
The fairy should come dancing by soon, right?
I swear If i'm about to be sucked into some looking-glass or magical shoe I'm gonna be pissed
Plum jam
- plums
- sugar
- heat
That is all
Tell all the neighbors they can have free plums if they pick their own on a certain day
Attract some parrots and you will rapidly have a garden full of drunk parrots lol
Local food not bombs groups might be able to use them, or at least direct you at someone who can.
Can confirm, pálinka, pălincă, either way they're both delicious
We call it rakija
a few bold humans who I’ve caught plucking from the tree
Let them. You're about to have more plums than you know what to do with, and yes leaving them there will get gross and attract all kinds of critters; you should encourage people to pick your plums, or pick them yourself and give them out. People are suggesting making jam and pies and such but that's a lot of additional work compared to just dumping them on your neighbors.
For picking plums, i recommend using a broomstick or curtain rod to shake each branch, all the plums fall, you pick them up. This should be done a few times a year.
For 1kg of plums:
Base shortcrust:
- 300 g flour
- 200 g cold butter
- 100 g sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 small pinch of salt
(Egg is debatable it's shortcrust, after all)
For the crumb shortcrust:
- 150 g flour
- 150 g cold butter
- 80 g sugar
- 1 small pinch of salt
Buy good butter with some actual taste from cows eating actual grass, not hyperindustrial stuff fed on nothing but soy it's worth it.
Mix both doughs individually, wrap them in cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes. A kitchen machine definitely helps with that one note there's no water (but in the butter), if you use a machine make sure to not overwork the dough. If in doubt, read up on shortcrust.
Halve and seed the plums, then roll out the base dough, laying the plums on top, cut side up. Quartering also makes sense if you prefer but don't puree them. Crumble the crumb dough over everything, bake at 180C for ~60m.
Make lots of plum wine. I shit you not, it's delicious.
And so is damson wine by the way.
Make plum liquor
Pic of the tree so we know what we're dealing with?
National center for home food preservation is a trusted resource for preserving food. All of their recipes are scientifically tested to ensure safety.
There's a bunch of plum stuff there, Google plum site:nchfp.uga.edu to get a list.
Plum wine
Mmm, make plum compote and gift a big jar to all your neighbours and jumpstart you career as the beloved neighbourhood grandma
Plum liqueur (soak in vodka, with Cinnamon, ginger, simple syrup -- lots of recipes online). Delightful stuff, we went though last year's supply by February.
I've plumbed the depths of my mind for a solution, but I got nothing 🙃
Throw a load of them into the garden of your most hated enemy and watch them fall to the ant apocalypse instead.
Plums are a fantastic natural laxative in case you’ve been backed up … recently
Wine. Throw them all into a container, add some water, close the container. Open the container every now then or it might explode, after the first day you probably only need to open it once a day. Do that for two weeks, the bottle it or, if you are feeling fancy, buy a cask and age it there I guess. I just did pomegranate wine as an experiment since I never fermented anything, it tasted alright. I did use bread yeast but I'm convinced I didn't actually needed that and the wild yeast was sufficient.
hooch them into brandy
dehydrate & make fruit leather
ferment and make umeboshi (word of warning here, these are saltier than salt)
plum flavored icecream
plum vinegar
im out of ideas
Cordial!! You use a pound of fruit at least each time. It's great to gift as well. :) It's just sugar and fruit, very easy to make.
Another option is soaking them in pure grain ethanol like Spirytus or everclear and then diluting that with sugar water after a few months to make like a limoncello with plums, or mixing sugar ahead of time like umeshu. Even just soaking them in whiskey no sugar added
Be advised: the methods given here to make things like wine and jam are missing crucial steps in process. They are going to taste bad at best and at worst... a lot of food borne illnesses in the future of anyone who takes advice here at face value.
Canning and wine making are very specific processes.
Definitely try to do something with them. Or just let the animals eat them lol. I think id try to make some hooch for sure though, at least.
Eat/make what you can and compost the rest.