Beach Plum Extravaganza

My colleague at the Crane Estate, Garry, is getting married on October 22nd. He and his fiance Beth invited me to the wedding. The wedding is at Crane, with the ceremony happening on the lawn at the Inn and the reception in the barn. It's going to be a lovely wedding in a beautiful setting that I never, ever, get tired of looking at - I'm excited!

So Garry and I were talking one day and he mentioned wanting to make beach plum jam to give as favors (and serve as place cards). This was in early July when we really didn't know what kind of plum season it was going to be. I offered to make the jam as my gift to them since neither he nor Beth have ever canned anything before.

As it turned out, very few plums grew on the bushes at work and the season was a bust. We even had to change the theme of the canning workshop (that I ran) from beach plum jam to rose hip jelly! And Garry and Beth were super bummed. So I went out in search of plums and found some sneaky little fruits hidden away in a more remote part of the property.

After many days of picking, Garry and Beth collected somewhere around 37 cups of beach plums in the hope that I could make about 90 four-ounce jars of jam. This was stretching it but I said I'd see what I could do!

At this point, you may be asking, what is a beach plum?

 

Beach plums are about the size of a giant blueberry, dark purple in color, and with a rather large pit. They grow at the beach, usually on the landward side of the first set of dunes (protected from most salt spray and weather). It's a pretty tart fruit but a nice little treat if you can lay your hands on one.


The canning process if fairly simple: using either fresh or frozen plums, pit them and chop them up, then add the chopped plums and sugar (using a 1:1 ratio) to a large, heavy bottomed pot and bring to a hard boil for one minute. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes. Pour into jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

For a nice article on beach plums and a more thorough recipe, click here. My recipe comes from a book called Plum Crazy, published in the early 1970s.

I am making the jam in batches of 5 cups plums and 5 cups sugar, and I'm recruiting help from those I know who love to can! Kesley and Lena helped me this evening, pitting and ladling and processing soooo many jars.

Once the whole process is over I will hopefully remember to write an update!