Bread and Jam(Plum) for Mike

So it's been a great year for our plum tree.  Last year we had a late freeze and some storms that took the fruit off the trees.  But not this year.  Clara had been asking about "her" plum tree, since she loved the plums when we had them several years ago.  She didn't end up actually eating many this year, but she was really excited about picking and helping to make jam.

 

Clara started off picking from Daddy's arms . . .

But then it was necessary to switch to the ladder.  She went all the way to the last step.  She was determined to get every plum she could!

Here she is with about 2/3 of the crop.  Mike had to pick the rest from the top step of the ladder - it's a tall plum tree!  And yes, we picked lots of them green this year.  We've learned from experience to pick when we get the chance instead of waiting.  We found that waiting leads to too much waiting when other things in life seem more pressing and before you know it most of the fruit is rotting on the ground.  But they actually ripened very nicely in the house where we spread them out on the rock area surrounding our wood stove. 

Back to the picking . . . it took long enough that we all managed to wander outside before it was all said and done.  Everyone managed to find a job for him/herself.  Gracie and I sorted the plums in the wagon (green and ripe) and John Michael had some complicated, and understandable only to him, job of putting the leaves and greenery that accidentally got picked into his wheelbarrow.  

Then it was time to bring the harvest in:

The girls and I took off to Houston a few days later (more on that in an upcoming post!), but Mike persevered and ate lots of plums, got lots of jam made and ate lots of plum jam.  I've been joking with the kids that he might have a plum tree growing in him! 

Luckily for Clara, there were still some plums that needed to be turned into jam.  She was really excited to help and there were enough for two nights of plum jam-making.

She even got to stay up late the second night to help since she took a 2 hour nap that day and Gracie was off at VBS with a friend so it was a fun time for her and Daddy (JM was in bed). 

And that's it for the plums this year.  Now we just get to enjoy about 8 quarts of yummy plum jam (okay, I think we're down to 6 - Mike really has been eating a lot!).  We'll give you a taste if you drop by, but you better hurry, it's going fast.