Monday, September 8, 2014

Wild Plum Jelly

Wild Plum Jelly
While I had nothing to do with the makings of the wild plum jelly, I had hands-on experience with the gathering of the plums themselves. Our first foray was mom, Brynnly and I going out in the golf cart with bucket and sheet in hand. With mom's expert direction, Brynnly and I would spread the sheet under the heavily plum-laden branches, shake the branches, and then, with a great amount of luck, watch as the plums fell onto the sheet. Must admit that worked not as well as we had hoped. However, in the end, we gathered enough wild plums that jelly-making was a sure thing! Plus, we had a lot of laughs, so it was all just really really wonderful!

Wild Plum Jam:

wild plums - as many as you can gather
water to just cover plums
sugar - 3/4 cup for every 8 oz. plum sauce
cheese cloth
strainer
jelly jars w/the lids

Place picked-over (remove blemished plums, leaves, stems, etc.) plums in a large pot and just cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring often, until plums begin to split and have cooked down.
Line a strainer with cheese cloth and pour in the cooked plums. (Be careful! HOT!) Let the plums drain over night. Next morning, measure how much plum juice you have and put back into a pot. Bring to a boil and for every 1 cup of plum juice, add 3/4 cup sugar. Cook mixture until it begins to thicken. (When you dip a spoon into the mixture, two beads of juice should form into one bead and then very slowly drip off - it's a touchy-feely kind of thing, not an exact science.) In the meantime, place the jelly jars upside down into another pot of boiling water, along with the lids, and boil for about 5 - 10 minutes until they are sterilized. Remove from the water with tongs.
Ladle the plum juice/jelly into the jars and put the lids on. Let cool and distribute to those friend who are worthy of sharing in your hard labor!

Yum!


'till we feast again!

xoabb