Sunday, September 7, 2008

Pillaging plums

Finally! The plums are ready for picking. A bit beyond ready in a few cases, since some of the fruit had already fallen. I picked a gallon and a half of plums, and have the scratches on my arms to prove it. My hair needed some rearranging too, since plum branches seem to stick out every which way and love snagging in hair, clothes, eyeglasses, etc. It seems the biggest, ripest plums are all clumped just beyond reach, just beyond a tangled mass of dead branches and fallen logs.

The ripe plums will have a pinkish hue to them, so the ones in the above photo still have a week or so to go. This year everything, including wild fruit and garden vegetables, is ripening up to a month later than normal. Plums don't normally bunch up like those in the photo; usually you're lucky to find three or four growing next to each other.

Working in a state park has its benefits. I know where most of the wild fruit and berries grow, and can keep an eye on them as they ripen. It seems no one else is interested in picking wild things, as I often see tons of fruit fallen on the ground. Birds and deer have a field day (literally) in the fall here.


Also ripe at this time are rose hips and wild grapes. I've made both rosehip jelly and wild grape jelly, with mixed results. The rosehip jelly was very tart, and not too much flavor. But rosehips are packed with Vitamin C. The wild grape jelly was so loaded with pectin that the jelly had the consistency of peanut butter, with a nice sweet/sour wild grape flavor. I think I doubled the normal amount of sugar called for in the recipe for domestic grapes.

Below is picture of my plum harvest, plus some wild grapes and a rosehip thrown in. It is such a gorgeous day outside, with the feel of autumn in the air, yet knowing winter is still a month or two (or three, if we're lucky) away. Enough time to finish the harvest, fill up the larder and prepare for the long cold.

Now where did I put those jelly bags ...

6 comments:

Harold Phillips said...

Jelly bags? Oh, so many inappropriate comments come to mind... at least you got plums this year. Our tree bore very little fruit, and what fruit we saw was immediately snatched up by the pug dogs!

The apple tree, however, is about to rain sugary hell upon the ground (and the dogs are waiting with baited breath. I mean, you know dog breath... "baited" is being charitable!)

Jo said...

Ha! Of course it is a male mind to think of those inappropriate comments! I'm surprised my hubby hasn't said anything yet.

Won't the apples freshen up a dog's breath? Not sure, don't have a dog. If so, you could invent and market a new canine breath freshening product with your rain of sugary hell.

I know my sister's dog gets the runs something fierce whenever she eats apples. Mmm ... Appetizing.

Kathy said...

Aw - you mentioned Molly! Not very flattering, but she'll be pleased you thought of her! Let me know if you want pictures of her to cover your page. I'm surprised you haven't asked yet.

Jo said...

Yes - send me pictures of Molly! Preferably not pictures of her just after eating apples...

Charlotte said...

Do you take the seeds out of the rosehips before you make the jelly? If not, how do you extract the pulp from the hips?

Jo said...

Charlotte -

Hmm. It's been awhile, so my memory is kinda weak. I think I cooked the rose hips and then pressed them through a food mill. Here's a recipe I found today on the web:

http://www.recipesource.com/side-dishes/preserves/rose-hip-jam1.html

Good luck!