This time of year, we’re constantly busy harvesting and putting up not only the garden produce but our wild crops as well. Luckily we have many on our homestead and this year we’ve been happy to see that our wild plum crop is outstanding. As wild plums bloom quite early, we only get a good crop about one year out of three. This year the trees are loaded! And finally, most are ripe. Once they are ripe, they easily fall off the tree and the critters such as wolves, fox, and bears, not to mention squirrels, gobble them up. (We can’t take Spencer on our wild fruit expeditions as he also loves fruit!)
We used both a ladder and the back of our pickup to stand higher to pick. Then we gently shook the trees to free any high-up fruit. Thud, thud, thud, it rained plums! We picked those up off of the ground. How good they smell — sort of like plum mixed with vanilla. Mmmm.
Will crawled through our fence to harvest some inside the pasture. But as crawling is very hard on my poor sore knees, I told Will I’d walk down to a spot where the lower wire had been broken to cross the fence there. I knew there was a seasonal drainage to cross but it’s been pretty dry so I figured it’d be easy to cross. Yeah, right… There were still water puddles in it so I tried to step across on the high spots. Bad idea. I sunk to my knees and my left shoe pulled off in the clay; then I was stuck! Will came to help, giving me something solid to pull against. I ended up losing my right shoe too! But I got out. Yuck was I a mess! Will dug out my shoes by hand and I got back through the fence to the drive in my stocking feet encased in clay mud. But we ended the day with three big pails of plums.
I juiced the first batch last night in the Mehu Liisa steam juicer and got a gallon and a quart of beautiful juice. Today I’ll do another batch and make jelly from some of the juice. The rest I’ll can up to make jelly when things aren’t so hectic. Will is saving some pits to plant for our own baby trees.
Just a reminder guys: when you ask questions try to use the email link provided at the top of the blog not the comments section. It’s too easy for your questions to get lost in the comments and not get answered. — Jackie
Barbara,
You can get 20 plum pits for $3.00, including postage by sending an order to us at: 8533 Hwy 25, Angora, MN 55703
Woohoo! Looks like fun & those plums are worth it – especially when your g-pa says it’s one of his favorites:)
I’d love to buy some of those wild plum pits. Just let me know where to mail the check! Thanks
Sheryl,
I LOVE my Mehu Liisa!!! I don’t know what I did without it for all those years. I feel like I threw away so much juice…..
Deborah,
If I’d have been carrying a calf I would have been oh so screwed as I was stuck in place. Way stuck!!! Mama would have walked over me and taken her baby back to the woods.
Rick,
Punta Bandas are the size of a medium to larger cherry tomato, with thicker walls and lots of meat. Being wild Mexican tomatoes, they are VERY hardy in about every condition you can imagine!
Sure, those wild plums will grow from pits. Will and I will be planting some in a tire filled with rotted compost as soon as I get more done. And, yes, we’d be happy to sell you say 20 for $2.50, just like the regular seeds.
Sorry to hear about the mud but I am glad to know it’s just not me that this sort of thing happens to. Luckily no one has a camera to capture my “mud holes”.
Those plums look so lovely…will have to see if we have a variety that will grow in SE Virginia.
Loaned my juicer to a neighbor for his blackberries and he is hooked too. You just can’t beat the juice it can extract.
Punta Banda tomatoes: I’d like to know the size of your Punta Banda tomatoes too. Mine are 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches diameter. There are many hundreds of them. The plants set fruit early and they just keep coming, ripen quickly. I pick every day. Taste is old fashioned tomato, not sweet, and not many seeds. Mine are in dirt suitable for high desert cactus, lying on the ground, no fertilizer, and no supplemental water after the first few weeks.
Love how you keep your sense of humor when things go awry!
Omigosh…that picture of you with mud up to your knees is so funny. Life is good.
Jackie, I do not know of those wild plums in our area. I wonder if they could be planted outdoors and left to chill/freeze over winter and get new seedlings in the spring. If you think that would work would you be willing to sell a few seeds online to us now? I would like to buy about 6 to 10 of them.
Also in regard to the Punta Banda tomatoes would you post a few photos. Are they a large or small tomato????
Sorry about the mud incident. I had that happen to me in the garden this summer when I was trying to chase a ground hog from my new lima beans right after a super rain . I lost both shoes and fell flat on my belly across a couple rows of green beans….My wife laughed while I sputtered and crawled out on hands and knees. Rick
Oh, Jackie ! How funny. The same thing happened to my husband when he was carrying a new calf back to the barn. He couldn’t stop because the new mama was following him way too close for comfort. Homestead life gives us such good memories.
I used the Mehu Liisa yesterday for the first time also. Out of 2 gal frozen cherries, I got 4qts of juice. Very sweet. While it did take 4+ hours until I thought most of the juice was expelled, it was definitely easier.
Laughing with you, Jackie and Will. Thanks again for your updates. I look forward to them. :)
Jackie– Cheers to your sense of humor, determination, and delicious looking plums!
After reading about your Mehu Liisa juicer I saved up and bought one. It is certainly my new favorite kitchen aid. Amazing how much juice one gets with it. I juiced wild plums, peaches and now my prickly pears. Life got sooooo much easier with the Mehu Liisa!!!!!
Love the mud story too……
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