Every year, our plum tree gives us an amazing amount of tasty plums. Far more than we could eat or even share before the bees, birds and wasps start taking their share. And every year, I think, “I must make jam”. A few years back I actually did, and the jam was jolly tasty, it was tart and sweet and enjoyed by a number of friends and family. This year, I decided I had to make it again. Except I could remember very little about how I did it or the recipe I used.

As is often the way, I consulted the Edmonds Cookery Book and found a plum jam recipe and instructions on how to sterilise the jars and lids. Because I found the process a bit stressful, I’m going to document it for my future self, so next year, I’ll be able to refer to this post.

So, step one is to gather the plums. I can’t really leave it too late, and I think mid January is probably prime collection time. We don’t want super ripe plums as we need that tang. Though I certainly had plenty of just ripe plums in the mix.

The recommended advice is to pick the plums on a sunny day. I’m guessing this is for the sugar level. And that’s what I did. One thing I didn’t think about was just how big a pot I was going to need, and so I halved the recipe. Though I have since discovered one of my other pots would probably have done the job.

For this batch of jam, I didn’t remove the stones before stewing – and I won’t do that again. It’s a laborious process scooping the stones out from a boiling pot.

Stewing – this took a bit longer than I expected, as we want the plums to break down in a small amount of water. For my next batch that I’ll make this week, I’m going to remove the stones by squishing the plums into a bowl. And I’ll get this nice and broken down before I start the boiling process.

Lemon – as I like a tart jam, I added the juice of half a lemon.

Jars – for this batch I used quite large jars, and in future I’ll use ones half the size.

Sterilisation – I use the oven method – the jars are washed first in the dishwasher and then sit in an oven set to 120 degrees celsius for 30 minutes. The jar lids are boiled in water for 5 minutes.

Boiling – once stewed the fruit is boiled for 15 minutes.

Transferring to jars – I did this when the jars were still hot and with a ladle and it was a bit messy, but next time I’ll use try using something with a spout I can pour it from and into.