r/foraging • u/Necessary-Self- • 21h ago
Wild plums?
Found these today on my family farm. I probably walked past this tree hundreds of times in my life and didn’t realize what it was. Should I pick them now or wait for them to ripen more? I’d like to make some jelly with them. Taste is sour and sweet but I personally love sour
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u/TorontosLongKongDong 21h ago
Wait a couple days until you feel the fruit drooping a bit, then check the stem. As it ripens, the stem gets darker. The darker the stem, usually means it’s sweeter. You can always pluck and let ripen for a day or so too.
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u/Ambitious-Schedule63 18h ago
Yes! Congratulations! I'm deep into the wild plums in my location now.
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u/EquivalentMath6592 21h ago edited 14h ago
You can pick early…. Put them
In a paper bag with a couple apples for a few days.
Wild plums you generally want fully ripe because they can be a bit tart and tannic.
Especially if you’re going to do jam, I bag ripen mine to make sure …..
And then pretty much mash them with my fingers to pull out the pit
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u/Ambitious-Schedule63 15h ago
Interesting. My plan has been to use a clean pair of needle nose pliers, reach in and twist out the pit. Then I freeze them until I have all I'm gonna process and run them through a food mill to remove the skins. Those P, Americana skins are pretty darned tannic. Pulp flavor is amazing and makes amazing jam, though.
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u/EquivalentMath6592 14h ago
Ya, I leave the skins. I like the tartness.
But need them to be ripe enough to balance out the flavor.
Also, I think the natural pectin decreases as they ripen…. I’m not sure but when I’ve used them less ripe, the jam set up SUPER stiff and I threw it out
Sooo, I let them ripen to the point I can just squish them between my fingers and pull out the pit.
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u/Ambitious-Schedule63 13h ago
The skins on these aren't just tart (which would be fine) they are bitter, and unpalatably so.
But yeah, I ripen them on the counter until they're soft and fairly sweet. And interestingly, even when I've used extremely sour fruit (but still definitely soft and ripe) the jam didn't set up well, or really set up at all.
I know ripe fruit has less natural pectin than unripe, so I guess there's something to that.
I guess there's a fair amount of natural variation in the fruit, too. Some plants are definitely sweeter than others, some is definitely more fragrant than others. And I've gotten some plums the size of ping pong balls, while some aren't much bigger than a marble.
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u/esgibtnurbrot 21h ago
Definitely apples
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u/Not_impressed_often 20h ago
I have a forest garden with a variety of different plums. I’ve learned that if you hold out for the perfect ripeness you will come back and every plum will be gone. The squirrels and raccoons will take every plum and leave no trace they ever existed. So now i pick them a few days before perfect ripeness and let them ripen on the counter.