Plum Jam

For the past year, Simon and I have been unsure about a couple of the trees that are in our garden; we couldn’t figure out what variety of fruit tree they were.  Turns out they were a couple of different types of plums.  So, the other day I picked all the ripe fruit and I made jam.
It turns out making Plum Jam is really easy – you don’t need anything fancy because as my research has told me, Plums have a lot of natural Pectin in them.  That’s the stuff that helps the jam to set, which means you don’t need to add anything.


Our lovely trees gave me 2.7 kg of fruit before I cut them up to remove the stones.
You will need:
Equal weight of plums and sugar (at least 1.5kg – just reduce the amount of water if you have less)
A little bit of water (about ⅔ cup)


Chop up the plums, removing the stones and put into a large pot with a heavy base.  Add a little bit of water (I put in about ½ a cup for all my plums).


Bring the pot up to a boil and simmer uncovered for an hour, stirring occasionally.  The liquid should be reduced by ⅔ and the fruit should be soft.
Put a small plate into the freezer to make it cold for testing the jam later.
Add the sugar into the simmering fruit.  I would start with a small amount of sugar and taste the jam before adding more (I used about 1kg of sugar to my 2.7ish kgs of fruit because I found it sweet enough).  Stir until it is completely dissolved.Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a rapid boil while stirring.  Boil for 10 minutes.


Remove the plate from the freezer and place a blob of the mixture on to it.  Once the mixture has cooled a little, run your finger through it; if the mixture stays separated it is ready to be put into jars.  If the mixture comes back together, boil it for a few more minutes before testing again.  Once the mixture is ready, remove from the heat and pour into sterilised jam jars (I used some from the supermarket that have the lids that pop in when they have sealed.  There’s heaps of info about how to sterilise them on the internet.)

 

I found this You Tube video really helpful and recommend it if you are going to give making Plum Jam a go.
Once opened the jars of jam will last for about 8 weeks.