summer plums

One of our neighbors gives us a bunch of fresh plums right from their tree every summer.  We always eat a couple of them, but never seem to make it through the bag before the [nasty] fruit flies seem to get them….soooooooooo this year I decided to try turn them into a jam (emphasis on try). 

    

I loosely followed this recipe, here are a few of the modifications I made:

I didn’t peel the plums.  This was MY BIGGEST MISTAKE!  The peel is the worst part of the plum, and gives the jam a slightly bitter taste (but maybe that is just my initial opinion base on using it as an ice cream topping…we’ll see what I think after putting it on something else).  I just cut them into halves/quarters, threw them into a food processor, and dumped them into the pot.

I didn’t use pectin (we’ll see how much they firm up…it might be worth running to the store to pick some up next time), and I think I didn’t use quite as much sugar as the recipe calls for, but again – I loosely followed the recipe, which means (don’t tell Joel this part) that I don’t really measure things.  The only ingredients were plums, lemon juice, cinnamon, and sugar.

When I canned this (and when I can blackberry jam), I didn’t boil the jars after putting the jam in them.  I put the lid on, turn the jar upside down for about 5 minutes, and then flip upright to cool – and wait to hear the sealing POP (normally 5-10 minutes after flipping right side up). 

Served over [very melted] ice-cream….