Friday 3 September 2010

Jam jam jam

The theme of this week in the WithaY household (other than work, sleep, work, sleep, deal with domestic stuff, sleep, work) has been jam.

Plum jam, to be specific.  We don't have a plum tree in the garden, although there are plans afoot to do some clever planting and espaliering (sp?) in the future.  However, Father-in-law WithaY has a tree in his garden, so when we called round to the house at the weekend on the way home, we decided to pick a few plums.




I think we ended up with about 40 pounds of fruit.  So, we ate some, we put some in a bowl to take to Father-in-law WithaY at the nursing home, and we looked at the remaining 38.5 pounds of plums.  What to do, what to do?

Jam.

Obviously.

We got everything ready...sugar, plums, water, recipe book, jamjars....perfect.



Please note, that little bowl of plums is the one we took to Father-in-law WithaY, not the one we used for the jam. 

We cut the plums in half, took the stones out and boiled the bejeezus out of them for a bit. 


Then we added the sugar and boiled them a bit more.  There was a degree of confusion about the correct amount of sugar.  We had to multiply the recipe by 3.  Or was it 4?  Anyway, there was a rapid and irreversible escalation of confusion which ended with me being sent out of the kitchen in disgrace to think about what I'd done. 

Mr WithaY continued with the jam making alone. 


Anyhoo, some time later, we had jam.


Lots and lots and lots of jam.  If I wasn't still on my weight loss regime (stone and a half so far, slow and steady, thanks for asking) I'd be scarfing down hot buttered toast with home-made plum jam like a machine.  A MACHINE.



We still have quite a lot of plums left.  Suggestions on a postcard.

4 comments:

Mrs Jones said...

Steep some in vodka.
Plum wine.
Slivovitz.
Plum jelly.
Plum curd.
Make crumbles to put in the fridge.
Plum ice cream.

livesbythewoods said...

Mrs J, all sterling suggestions, thank you very much. However, it was a moot point, as by the time I emptied them out of the bowl, they were festering.

Such a slattern, me.

Anonymous said...

I was going to say savoury plum chutney (although Mrs Jones suggestions are exceedingly good), but it sounds like perhaps compost would be best at this point.
Have similar issues at moment, but with tomatoes instead of plums.
A serious miscalculation by my partner on the number of tomato bushes required has led to the backyard looking like a set from the Day of the Triffids, with extra tomato.

livesbythewoods said...

Hello Anonymous - I'd have suggested a swap but it's all too late for the plums now. They have gone to a composty grave.