After the long-awaited harvest season, plums delight with their sweet aroma from mid-July. If the weather is favorable, the fruits ripen at the same time. Find out in this article how the vitamin-rich fruits are preserved.
How can I preserve and use plums?
Plums can be preserved and used in different ways: They can be frozen, pickled, dried or made into puree and jams. Make sure to use ripe and overripe fruits appropriately and remove maggots if necessary.
Processing ripe plums
Only ripe fruits are used. If the plums still have green spots, ripen them in a paper bag at room temperature. Adding a banana speeds up the ripening process.
Freezing
Wash, core and halve ripe fruits. Pre-cool on a baking tray or small plate in the freezer for about 60 minutes. Then pack in freezer bags or frost-resistant containers. Depending on your needs, you can thaw individual fruits and enjoy a homemade fruit cake in winter. Frozen plums are suitable for making puree.
Insert
Freshly harvested fruits can be wonderfully combined with winter game dishes. Wash, halve and core the fruit. In various marinades made from high-quality vinegar variants, the plums can be kept for up to 24 months. Depending on your taste, red wine, rum and spices round off the delicacies.
Drying
Dry quartered plums in the dehydrator or oven. As dried fruit, they last up to 12 months.
Use overripe plums
When the ideal harvest time has passed, all types of plums are suitable for preparing puree or jam. Particularly late species remain on the tree until after the first frost in November. The bottom piece of the fruit is already shriveled at this point. However, the taste 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. Before processing, we recommend taking a bath in a sugar-water solution. In this way the animals escape from the plums and swim to the surface of the water.
Tips & Tricks
When new plum trees appear in your home garden, choose two different varieties. From July to September you harvest the fruits in stages.