Recipes

Wild Plum Jelly

 

Here's a new twist to "Upcycling My World"! I've been busy canning this summer. I've been trying to use the fruit that God has literally 'put at my feet'!



Wild Plum Jelly

This time I’m upcycling some wild plums that I found in our woods! The fruit is too sour for me to eat even if it is fully ripe. I do have two granddaughters that will eat the sour plums.  I'm making wild fruit into delicious wild plum jelly.  Everything has value, even wild fruit that is picked up off the ground can be made to something incredibly good to eat.

Wild Plums

 

I found these wild plums on the ground while walking my little dogs through our woods. I never made wild plum jelly before so I looked up some recipes on 'Pinterest'. The blog site is at the end of this post.



Fresh Wild Plums for Jelly

 

Wild Plum Jelly Recipe                            Print Recipe              

5 pounds fresh wild plums (I only use plums that have ripened naturally and have fallen on the ground)

4 cups of water to boil wild plums 

I measured out 5 ½ cups of plum juice from the above combination.

1 box of fruit pectin (I used Sure-Jell)

1 pat of butter or tsp. of butter to settle foam

7 ½ cups of pure cane sugar (have this already measured out in a large bowl to be ready to pour in boiling juice) 

While my canning jars are in a canner of boiling water I prepare the fruit and make the jelly. I used the cute little 8 ounce jelly jars. I boil the jars for at least 30 minutes while I’m making jelly . After 30 minutes I turn the canner off and let the jars set in the hot water until I am ready to pour the jelly into the jars.
 

I rinsed and weighed the fresh plums. If there are more than 5 pounds of plums I just add enough water to cover plums to cook. There will be more juice than the recipe calls for, so I can store it in the refrigerator or freezer or make another batch.  I don't cull or pick out imperfect fruit because I am using the same concept as if I am using the peels and cores from apples, pears, or peaches. I boiled the whole fruit in a large canning pot for 30 minutes.
I used a potato masher to mash the cooked fruit so it would drain better. I let it cool a little so it wouldn’t be too hot to handle.



Drain Cooked Plums in Cheese Cloth

 

I used cheese cloth in 3 layers that I laid over a large bowl and poured in the cooked fruit and juice. I carefully gathered the edges and raised the fruit over the large bowl to continue to drain. I hung the cheese cloth from a cabinet door handle and I occasionally tightened the cheese cloth by turning it to tighten around the fruit and force out the juice.  I continued until I was satisfied I had rendered off all the juice.

In the same large pot that I rinsed I added 5 ½ cups of plum juice and 1 box of Sure-Jell. I like to add a teaspoon of butter to keep the foam down. I cooked it on high heat stirring while bringing it to a full boil that doesn’t stir down and boiled for 1 minute then added the already measured 7 ½ cups of sugar. I stirred it constantly on high heat bringing it to another full boil for 1 minute. I held a spoon of jelly over the pot and tilted it to pour out slowly to watch if the last of the jelly drops just hang on the spoon. That’s going to be good jelly.

Then I removed sterilized jelly jars from the hot water. I used a jar lifter. I placed them on a clean towel. I skimmed off any white foam that forms at the top of the jelly. I used a canning jar funnel and measuring cup to dip hot jelly into the jars leaving ¼ inch space at the top. I put the lids in the hot sterilized water while I  filled the jars. Once jars are filled and rims are wiped off with a paper towel with a corner dipped in the hot water, I used my magnetic lid lifter to remove lids from hot water and placed lids and tighten rings on jars. Then I returned the jars of jelly to the hot water to boil for 5 minutes. This made 8 half pint jars. Then, I removed them with the jar lifter and listened to them seal.

Wild Plum Juice and Jelly

 I love the beautiful red color and how well it jells.

This is the blog where I found the original recipe,   http://musthavemom.com/2013/09/wild-plum-jelly-recipe-can.html  .