Plum jelly

I think I've mentioned before on this blog that my family (just my mom's side, actually) cans vegetables fresh from the garden and freezes other vegetables like corn and beans. My sister and I grew up knowing that the "green bean" room and the two deep freezes downstairs were always filled with "fresh" food. We also grew up with my mom and Granny making things like grape jelly and preserves. It's only been a few years now that my Granny has been making plum jelly. She sent some to Bowling Green last year, and immediately, Heath was hooked.

We had been asking around to see if anyone had plum trees. You just don't see a lot of them anymore. My sister has one on her lot that was ready earlier in the summer, but recently, Cash had been asking for plum jelly on his sandwiches, so mom started hunting around for more plum trees. And thankfully, a high school friend of her's has about a half dozen trees on his farm that he reported, "No one ever did anything with."

So Wednesday morning, I loaded the boys up and we headed to Roseville to meet mom and Granny. We were going plum hunting, and the boys were excited!

One of their absolute favorite things to do is ride in the back of pick-up trucks. Country boys? I think so.

It was sunny and warm, but the boys were ready to be put to work.

There they were -a whole grove of plum trees!

Mom, Granny and I took a look and decided that the work was more for us than for the boys. They helped pick up a few, and they got a kick out of us shaking the trees, but we let them sit in the truck because a lot of the plums were either covered with wasps and bees, or they were swarming around. We didn't want the boys to grab hold of a plum and get stung.

Wow! Lots and lots of plums. We ate a few on the way back to Granny's, but it didn't make a dent in the "treasure" that we had found.

Before we could get busy on the plum jelly, I helped Granny wring out some grapes that she had been working on earlier in the morning. See the cheesecloth? She poured the cooked grapes in that, and  then we...

twisted all the juice out of it to use for the jelly.

Here's some of the grapes that we got. My aunt's actually all froze during the spring, but her neighbor brought over some bunches that were on her vine. Thank you!

Here were are cooking the plum juice.



And here it is after we had poured it into the jars. Beautiful! (and yummy!)

After we finished with the jellies, Cash helped Grammy shell some butter beans.

Right after lunch, we decided to call it a day. We had filled lots and lots of jars, and had even canned some of the juice to make more jelly later. Shew!