Plums, Plums And...Hey, Did I Mention PLUMS??

Last week, I bought a thirty-pound box of plums. Why? Because we have fallen in love with plum jam and it's going to be such a long time before they're are in season again. I have to do my part to make sure my dear husband doesn't go without this delight for the next ten months. After all, he makes sure I don't do without...well, most everything else in the world.

Now having clean water again, I've been on a canning frenzy lately trying to make the best of a waning growing season. Unfortunately, some escaping steam left me with a nice second-degree burn on my thumb. (Did you know those hurt?) Apparently, you shouldn't can with such potential distractions as ringing telephones, sword-fighting children or the need to breathe. Of course, my super-supportive hubby chimed in with, 'Hey! You might lose the whole fingernail!' Great. Thanks.

Anyway, the plums needed a bit of ripening so I laid them out on the kitchen table for a couple of days. When ready, I weighed out three pounds and looked at the remaining pile. I thought to myself, 'This can't be thirty pounds because I just filled a big bowl. They're not going to go as far as I thought.'

But, alas, after two additional batches of jam, I looked at the table again and thought, 'My word!! Are they having babies over here?! Where are all these plums coming from?!?'

Clearly, I didn't need that much jam so I went off in search of recipes. I found a plum chutney recipe that looked intriguing were it not for the fact that most people seem to use chutney as a topping for meat. Um, I have enough trouble eating meat, thank you, without adding fruit to it. Besides, it has raisins and I want no involvement whatsoever with those. Blech!

I decided to can a few quarts whole in a honey syrup with vanilla beans. They'll be a welcome taste of August on some cold, winter night. As for the rest of the pretty little fruits...well, maybe I need more jam after all.

Happy holiday weekend to you and yours!