A bucketful of plums: how to freeze them

Just how do you make the most of an abundant plum harvest?

My plum tree is rather special. It has been grafted with several varieties. Exactly what varieties, I am not completely sure!

Showing signs of bearing Christmas Plums however (or more officially named Billington’s Early) they didn’t quite hit the Christmas calendar target however made up for it in great abundance a few weeks later!

An estimated 600 plums were harvested in half an hour, with many branches dragging on the ground under the weight.

This Billington’s Early variety of plum is a deep reddy-purple colour both on the outside and inside flesh when ripe.  Picked slightly early you’ll see a yellow tinge to the skin in parts and a lighter red flesh. When cooked, these plums maintain their vivid, rich colour however.

When to Pick

Once picked, the plum will not sweeten but just ripen. For pure ease of handling, I would suggest that you pick the fruit slightly under-ripe (eg: the skin has a slight ‘give’ when squeezed but not necessarily deep purple).

Over ripe fruit can be hard to handle, getting squishy when you try to remove the stone and attracting bothersome fruit flies. Don’t pick them green though unless they are the Greengage variety and ripen green! If in doubt, taste them. They should be sweet and tangy!

When picked you may notice a cloudy ‘white dust’ on the outer skin. It is bloom which can easily been rubbed off on your tee-shirt or in water, making the plum shine like freshly polished shoes.

I love fresh fruit. The downside of plums is that they generally ripen all at the same time. Once picked you really only have a matter of a week at best before they start to spoil.

There’s no time to waste.

Around 400 plums remain on the tree and will be picked by the end of the weekend – only to repeat the inevitable plum deluge that has already hit me!

What to do with a bucketful of plums?

Once you’ve eaten enough fresh plums, practice *responsible gifting and share with friends and neighbours.

*responsible gifting: don’t transfer the problem by oversupplying unsuspecting friends with too much fruit for them to realistically use. They may end up overwhelmed and let them spoil, defeating the original purpose.

What do you do with the rest? A great question. Believe me, I have been making a conscious effort to bring you answers!

Look ahead to future months when home-grown fresh plums may not be on your menu: freeze them.

Freezing Plums

Rather than wait until the horse has bolted (or the plums have over-ripened) look ahead and consider freezing plums.  Best prepared when the fruit is still slightly firm (as it is a far too messy a job once fully ripe), preparation is time consuming, but worthwhile.

I personally enjoy the art of preserving food so de-stoning plums is just part of the process. Put on some music, get stuck in.

1. Wash plums in cold water in the sink; pick out the stem (if still attached).
2. Slice around the diameter of the plum from top to bottom, using a paring knife (as you would with an avocado).
3. Twist the two halves – one side will be stoneless and perfect, the other will need further slicing to remove the stone. Unlike apricots where the dry stone literally pops out of its own accord, the flesh of the plum will stick to the stone and will need some artful slicing.
4. Lay plum pieces on a baking paper lined oven tray, single layer, skin side down, and place in freezer.
5. After several hours the plum pieces will have firmed up enough to allow you to transfer into a large zip-lock freezer bag.
6. Meanwhile repeat with remaining plums.

Fiddly and time consuming? Yes, but it allows for ‘free flow’ plums that won’t all stick together in a juicy giant frozen clump when it comes to using it!

You’ll be glad you did it. Then rather than cooking plums whole, then having to salvage the stones or sieve the pulp, you can happily go about your future baking or jam making knowing that the job has been done.

Frozen plums can be used for making jam/sauce in the future or baking and in smoothies (no need to defrost first, use from frozen).

This is just the beginning. I have frozen at least one hundred plums, but have several hundred more to create some delicious usage ideas to share. Watch this space.

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