A glut of plums

[Cuilidh]

We got a good crop of delicious, although small, sweet plums this year so I stripped the tree yesterday before the birds took a fancy to them.

As I have been loading down everyone at work with plums over the past week or two, and everyone in Guildford also has loads of plums of their own (it was a particularly good season in Guildford this year) I can’t get rid of any more and now have approx. 2 kgs to try to do something with in the near future.  Can I ask if anyone has any ideas about how I can use them up?  Unfortunately I can’t do anything in the way of cooking with them as I am not near a decent kitchen for two weeks!  Do they freeze?  Does anyone know of an organisation in Melbourne who may like to take them off my hands?

There are also several more trees with late plums ripening on them.  If the birds leave them alone I will have this problem again in another couple of weeks!  As they say, it never rains but it pours.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

[cookie1]

You could stew them with a little sugar, if needed, and then freeze them.

[judydawn]

Are you away from your Thermomix Marina?  You can stew them in that.  Found these comments for you in regard to freezing them.

Freezing Plums

I froze them by just putting them in the bag and putting them in the freezer. They are a little mushy when you thaw them but good just to eat on a cold day, slightly frozen or to put into fruit salad or make a cobbler out of them'

[Bootobethin]

 I agree with Judy. I pick my stone fruit and wash and dry it and then freeze it in 500 gram batches. I can then make jam or stew it or make crumbles as needed through the winter. I learned this through the CWA. They apparently get people to freeze their apricots at peak season and they make the jam they use at the Royal Show in July. They say the jam is fresher if done like that.
I have been freezing fresh fruit for several years and it works really well.
Good luck Cuilidh


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[trudy]

Lucky you Marina.  I always cut plums in half take out the stones and then place in a single layer in snap lock bags and put them in the freezer.  I use them throughout the year to make cakes, crumbles or just stew them for our breakfast.  Just thaw them out first if using for cakes.

[Cuilidh]

Thanks everyone.  In the end I managed to give away (get rid of) most of them to colleagues, customers, neighbours and those that I had left over I just popped into the freezer whole (that's the plums, not the colleagues, customers or neighbours!).  We'll see how they go (the same qualification as in the previous sentence).

I've got greengages and loads of other plums due in a couple of weeks, depending upon the dietary quirks and requirements of the local parrot population, so I may be in a similar situation again soon and I might try to make a batch of jam with the purple plums.