Plums Galore!

This summer I missed a week of my CSA while I was away.  That week there were PLUMS in the fruit share.  I simply adore plums.  The following week, I expressed my excitement about the availability of plums that week, too, as I had missed the first week.  My wonderful CSA farmer exclaimed, "Oh you missed them last week?  Let me give you more!"  And thus I went home with 30 plums.

I am not kidding when I say I love plums, but a person can only eat so many plums in a week, before they start to go bad and get a little soft.  However, finding myself newly interested in making jams, I decided that plum jam could be a lovely adventure!

I pulled peels from the plums, and measured out how much fruit I had, then used a little over one part sugar to two parts fruit (it was about 60% sugar to 100% fruit).  I added some lemon juice and let it cook down.  Those plums broke down quickly into a soupy, sweet, fruity compote, but still required some intensive cooking time to take on that jammy consistency.

Sweet and richly purple, this jam was not very chunky with fruit, but was still very thick and amply fruity.  I quickly used the funnel to pour jam into the sterilized jars.  I sealed them, processed them and let them cool until they made that lovely little POP that told me they had sealed.  One jar went away as a gift, but the other is awaiting opening for some lovely hot biscuits, or perhaps with some pork tenderloin.  I can't wait!