Plum Crazy

Jeri called to tell me that her plum tree was going crazy. Some of the branches were so heavy with fruit that they needed to be propped up. While I'm not a fan of canning plums, I can never say no to a new opportunity to make jam. I went over to her house yesterday to pick up a few pounds and walked away with close to 30 lbs of ripe, juicy, sweet plums.

Now this is where things get a little nuts. We're going camping tomorrow and I had a dentist appointment today. That meant I needed to get jammin'. (Fortunately Joseph spent the day at his grandparents'.)

I woke up early this morning and found a yummy recipe for Plum Nutty Conserve. It called for 12 1/2 c. of plums which was a great way to use a lot of plums fast. Ten minutes into pitting and I remembered why I vowed to never jam plums again. (I guess technically I was "conserving" plums this time.) I spent almost an hour pitting plums while the juice ran over my knife and down my arms. Each cut squirted sticky-sweet juice on the counter. The plums were slippery and difficult to hold on to. The room heated as my water bath boiled merrily on the stove. At the point when I would have been pulling completed, sealed jars of strawberry jam out of their bath, I finally finished prepping the plums. Then came the zesting.

Side note: Birthday/Christmas wish list addition - I'd like one of these please.

First I tried using my orange peeler to scrape the zest. After fifteen frustrating minutes, I hauled out my Pampered Chef cheese grater thinking the small attachment would work as a zester. Yeah. No. Then I tried just scraping my paring knife against the orange. That worked beautifully but sparingly. The recipe called for two TABLESPOONS of orange zest. Yikes! Finally I pulled out the big guns. At this point I'd been working on the prep for the conserve for almost three hours. (And realized I've gone to a few too many Pampered Chef parties.) Three long, hot hours as the temperature outside neared 100 and the humidity inside made the house feel like Florida. I put everything together, including the fresh squeezed orange juice, and set the whole concoction to boiling. In the meantime, I started the prep for my plum jam.

Side note: Never, ever, ever multi-task while canning.

With my back to the stove, but the timer on, I set about cutting up eight more cups of plums. A sizzling sound brought my attention back to the stove. My conserve had boiled over spreading a sugary, syrupy mess across my stove top. I quickly cleaned up and made sure that my full attention was on the conserve from that point on.

After much stirring and finger-crossing, everything gelled. I skimmed the foam and then cooled a spoonful to finally get a taste. I made sure I got a bite that encompassed all parts of the conserve - the plums, the raisins and the walnuts. I wrapped my lips around the spoon, tasted and realized that after all that hard work I'd put together something that, while yummy, didn't turn out exactly how I expected. I grabbed another spoon for my partner in taste-testing crime.

Another side note: Chad has an uncanny ability to come home for a quick break right around the time I need a taste tester.

He took a bite and looked at me quizzically. "Is this cherry? I thought you were making plum."  That's right.  After all that time, all that work, I converted plum to cherry. 

Overall, though, my Plum Nutty Conserve turned out delicious. I can't wait to try it poured over a brie and baked or as a topping for pork chops. Mmmmmmm.

I did end up getting my jam done, my dentist appointment met, J picked up and my grocery shopping done. I came home and packed our dry goods for our camping trip, did a load of laundry, prepped the food for this weekend and made a potato salad. Yes. That one. Yes. It did take me until midnight. Yes. I realize I'm Wonderwoman. Now where did I park that invisible plane?