Wild Plums!

[lcertuche]

The plum jam I made taste alright. The plums were big ole purple plums and it was a very pretty dark reddish blue but it didn't have the taste of wild plums or even those red plums Grandmother used to grow.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

The plums were big ole purple plums and it was a very pretty dark reddish blue but it didn't have the taste of wild plums or even those red plums Grandmother used to grow.

I'm afraid some of the new cultivars, while big and pretty, are lacking in the taste department...

 

[Britesea]

I have two old trees on our property that give us yellow, mid-sized plums; could be greengage, I'm not sure. The flavor is very sweet, but somewhat bland for jam. I tried a recipe last year that added cardamom to the mix and for some reason that did the trick- delicious! Unfortunately, I can't find the recipe now. Hope I can find it before harvest time!

 

[sumi]

I'm afraid some of the new cultivars, while big and pretty, are lacking in the taste department...

Someone over on TEG was complaining the other day about strawberries looking SO good and tasting of absolutely nothing. Sadly it seems some fruit and veg nowadays are grown to be more visually appealing than tasty.

 

[baymule]

People have no idea what REAL food tastes like. They are conditioned to food that looks like magazine pictures. The wild plums we picked were tiny little things, real tart, but the jelly is fabulous. My husband was afraid other people would pick them, I laughed and told him other people don't want to feed themselves, they just want to go to the store and put their food on a government issued "free food" card. Our "free food" involved work picking it, work cooking it and work making the jelly and canning it. Makes me glad that other people are ignorant lazy asses so we could have all the wild plums.

 

[Britesea]

Children are often more willing to pick for themselves. For years I lived in a house that had a loquat growing in the front yard; but we never got to taste them because the fruit was always stolen by children on their way to and from school. I thought it was birds until I saw them one day when I was sick and didn't go to work. I decided it wasn't worth getting worked up about so I let them continue. Maybe I shouldn't have, but I didn't see how I could make the prohibition stick when I was at work and the "tradition" was of such long standing.

By the way, I read that one of the tests to see if a new hybrid of cantaloupe was suitable for commercial farmers was to fire them out of a cannon (low powered, but still) at a wall. The ones that didn't go splat were the varieties they wanted because they would hold up to long transportation times and lots of handling. Nothing about flavor.

 

[freemotion]

People have no idea what REAL food tastes like. They are conditioned to food that looks like magazine pictures. The wild plums we picked were tiny little things, real tart, but the jelly is fabulous. My husband was afraid other people would pick them, I laughed and told him other people don't want to feed themselves, they just want to go to the store and put their food on a government issued "free food" card. Our "free food" involved work picking it, work cooking it and work making the jelly and canning it. Makes me glad that other people are ignorant lazy asses so we could have all the wild plums.

I discovered Autumnberries three years ago and found a sizable patch on a local bike path. I regularly picked 4 gallons in about an hour and a half and one day counted how many people passed me without any apparent curiosity as to what I was doing. 100 people passed, one couple stopped. They were obviously immigrants, and asked many questions about the berries and what I was going to make with them and where else they might find them. I told them to come pick here, this was not MY patch and there were enough for all. They gave me that look that said, no, of course we cannot pick here after you so generously gave us all the info. I insisted. I never saw evidence that anyone else picked there in the 4-6 week season.

I did here several people ask their walking/biking partner what I was picking. The answers were quickly made up to impress the asker and were ALWAYS wrong.

One more guy stopped to tease me that they were poison so I asked how many gallons I'd need to eat before I dropped dead. He was a retired forest service guy and said he'd been given a handful of these along with other fruit-bearing, wildlife supporting plants to randomly plant in the wilds. We had a few good laughs before he bicycled away.

I've yet to meet anyone who also picks these delicious and ubiquitous berries, same with elderberries. Both grow like weeds here. Except in last year's drought, the crops are always prolific, especially the elderberries, which bloom in warmer weather when the bees have their numbers up and are foraging well.

 

[baymule]

It’s 2018 wild plum season! We have gone picking several times. We still have plum jelly from last year, but the County is mowing the sides of the roads and trimming back all the overgrown tree branches that stick out in the roads. So we have been picking all we can, some plum trees have already been trimmed back to the fences. Nooooooo!!!!!!

We are glad to see the trees trimmed back. In lots of places the tree branches scrape the sides of our vehicles.

We picked a LOT of plums from a fence row that belongs to George. He is a bachelor, never married, living in the old house his grandfather built. We took him a couple of pints of plum jelly from last year and he was thrilled. He told us today that it was better than good, it was DEELICIOUS!

This is what we picked 4 days ago.

This is what we picked today. I sorted them for ripeness and have some cooking now. Smells so good!

I have 1 1/2 gallons of juice in the refrigerator so far. With what we picked today, I should get another 1 or 2 gallons. I’m going tocan the juice in quart jars. If I want to, later I can make jelly or use the juice to make a delicious drink.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's fantastic! Wish we had some trees around here! I planted a plum tree a few years ago and it didn't make it - but I've got a couple of suspicious trees that have sprouted in that area that I'm wondering about.... If you pick again, would it be too much trouble to snap a pic of the tree/leaves?

Enjoy all that good free stuff!

 

[baymule]

I will be glad to take pics for you.