Chicken bald back

[Lavenders_Blue]

Has anyone ever made jam with wild plums before? I came across a hedge full of wild plums whilst out walking the dog this afternoon and they are laden with wild plums of various colours - dark purple, yellow and bright red. I was a bit cautious of the red ones but having got home and googled it, it appears to be something called a cherry plum and perfectly edible. So, before I go back out this evening and pick a tonne of wild plums, are they worth making into jam? I will probably pick all the varieties and lob them in together (hoping for the best). Sadly my Victoria plum tree has had a rubbish year, and as plum jam is my absolute favourite, I need to get my fix somehow

[sjp]

they work great for jam I was on a job a few years back and there were a red and a yellow wild plum tree so I spend one afternoon picking them for a mate of mine who made them into jam and more or less kept the colour so go for it at the end of the free fruit is the best for jams etc

[Daphne]

My parents used to have a cherry plum and we'd pick the fruit and stew it to get lots of juice out, which my Mum would freeze and then use to make jellies. They are quite tart and with less flavour than more highly bred fruit, but I loved them and was very sad when the tree had to be cut down a few years ago.

[Lavenders_Blue]

Thanks - that's what I wanted to hear Off foraging after tea then!

[Mrs Webmuppet]

We too had a cherry plum tree in the garden when I was a child. You will need extra pectin to get a decent set, either use jam sugar or add some cooking apple.

[Lavenders_Blue]

Eek, I don't have extra pectin or apples in the house and was planning to make it tonight. Oh well, if it's really runny we'll just have to cup the bread

[Patricia W]

I made some lovely wild plum chutney last year, plus wild plum vodka - but the local crop was frosted this year at blossom time so nothing this year!

[Lavenders_Blue]

Well the first batch of jam is complete - 9 and a bit 1lb jars Initial taste tests reveal that the jam is extremely delicious and there's well over half a carrier bag full of plums gone into the freezer to be dealt with another time. Me and the kitchen and now covered in pink stickiness

[clucker1]

Mmmmm yum LB. Sounds yum......where is it you live?

Made me think about planting a Victoria plum tree in our mini orchard.

[Lavenders_Blue]

Oh yes, do get a Victoria plum tree. They really are so lovely, one of my favourite fruits and definitely my favourite type of jam.

[Lavenders_Blue]

Toast and plum jam for breakfast this morning, yummy!

It definitely set, much more than my own Victoria plum jam from previous years actually, it's gone really quite firm! Maybe it's because I put in quite a bit of slightly underripe fruit as well as ripe fruit? I think I'm right in saying underripe fruit contains more pectin?

[Daphne]

I'm impressed - just a few hours from idea to loads and loads of jam I think you're right about the pectin.

[Mrs Webmuppet]

Under ripe plums will set better. Also the pectin content varies from year to year. I made plenty of plum jam as a child (money was tight and it was the only way I got jam)

 

I also made blackberry and apple jam as a child, blackberries from the hedgerows and apples acquired from the next door neighbours tree....( always a little game, neighbour would say hmmm apples are ripe and I'm off out, back in two hours. My cue to grab a bag and help myself! If she had handed my Mum a bag full of apples I would never have got my jam).

[Lavenders_Blue]

Thanks Mrs MW, I had vaguely squirrelled away the thought that underripe fruit has better pectin, but it's good to know I wasn't just making that up

 

Blackberry and apple jam sounds lovely. I've spotted a nice apple tree near my Mum and Dad's house that needs to be investigated, but I've not really spotted much by way of blackberries this year - am I just looking in the wrong places or have others found this too? I know some fruits can have good years and bad years for cropping (plums being one of them!).

[The Dogmother]

I've made it before too L_B... lovely!

 

My Victoria plum tree had loads of plums earlier, but they all went mouldy about 2 weeks ago

[Mrs Webmuppet]

There are blackberries around but not in the glut levels of previous years. They are also a little late, I have a tame blackberry in my garden and its not laden like most years.

 

On the subject of the plums, i remembered there's a hedgerow just a few minutes walk from my house with wild plums in it so I popped round there and picked some - just over a kilo once I had stoned them. They are now in the freezer awaiting the day I will spend making jam.

[Lavenders_Blue]

Wow, good for you stoning them I'm afraid I am far too lazy to stone such tiny fruits - I don't mind doing Victoria plums, but life's too short to stand stoning tiny little wild plums. So I chucked the whole fruits into my jam, stones and all. I think it makes for a good workout as you eat it

[Mrs Webmuppet]

I decided to take the stones out as my Mother will be receiving some of the jam and so I have to be careful about pips and stones .......her eye sights not too good and she has problems swallowing.

[soapdragon]

We all went foraging on Sunday afternoon and came home with about 4lbs of blackberries which we froze to process another time - I think it depends on where you look as our usual source was very sp"Ooops, word censored!" this year so we had to venture off the beaten track!

[The Dogmother]

There are tons round here spent the evening dog walk hedge witching for blackberries and elderberries.... got loads!

[Lavenders_Blue]

There's loads of elderberries round here, but the blackberries really are woeful!

[The Dogmother]

I just need some wild apples to augment the crop on my tree and then a couple of clear days to get jam making.

 

I really must get round to checking my jam jar stock, ordering more if necessary, and getting some jam sugar in stock.

[Purplemaniacs]

There are tons round here spent the evening dog walk hedge witching for blackberries and elderberries.... got loads!

DM What do you use the elderberries for?

 

Chrissie

[Lavenders_Blue]

Zillions of apples round here!

[The Dogmother]

There are tons round here spent the evening dog walk hedge witching for blackberries and elderberries.... got loads!

DM What do you use the elderberries for?

 

Chrissie

 

Hedgerow Jelly - blackberries, wild crab apples and elderberries.... delicious.