After the long-awaited harvest time, plums delight with their sweet aroma from mid-July. If the weather is favourable, the fruits will ripen at the same time. Find out in this article how the vitamin-rich fruits can be preserved.
Process ripe plums
Only ripe fruits are used. If the plums still have green spots, they continue to ripen in a paper bag at room temperature. Adding a banana speeds up the ripening process.
Freeze
Wash, deseed and halve the ripe fruit. Pre-chill on a baking sheet or small plate in the freezer for about 60 minutes. Then pack in freezer bags or frost-resistant cans. Depending on your needs, defrost individual fruits and enjoy a home-baked fruit cake in winter. Frozen plums are suitable for making mush.
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Freshly harvested fruits can be wonderfully combined with wintry game dishes. Wash, halve and deseed the fruit. The plums can be kept for up to 24 months in various marinades made from high-quality vinegar variants. Depending on taste, red wine, rum and spices round off the delicacies.
dry
Quartered plums dry in the dehydrator or oven. As dried fruit they can be kept for up to 12 months.
Use overripe plums
When the ideal harvest time is over, all plum varieties are suitable for the preparation of mousse or jams. Late species in particular remain on the tree until after the first November frost. The lower part of the fruit is already shriveled at this point. The taste, however, is incomparably sweet. Due to the juicy consistency, canning is the only way to use it.
Overripe plums on the tree are a famous home for maggots. A bath in a sugar-water solution is recommended before processing. In this way, the animals escape from the plums and swim to the surface of the water.
tips and tricks
When new plum trees move into your home garden, choose two different varieties. From July to September you can harvest the fruits in stages.