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Dec 15, 2020 10:38:11 GMT
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Top work!....how many brownie points did you earn? I must admit, I always under estimate how long it takes to achieve the end product. But, once it's done, there's something special about tucking into a freash loaf of crusty bread topped with homemade jam 🤤🤤. As our plumbs are off the menu, over the last few weeks I've been picking the blackberries off of the overgrown patch of land next to where I work. There's loads about at the moment.....our freezer is filling up fast. Some of it will become jam over the weekend....hopefully. I'm also going to get a batch of Sloe gin under way using last year's Sloes that are at the bottom of the freezer. As for the peskey pidgeons, I need to come up with a way of keeping them away from the plumb tree next year. Just wondering if anyone has ever had pidgeon with plumb sauce before 😁 Pigeon is great eating, prepared either as a game bird, or just done on a fire like a cowboy BBQ. The jam has made its way up as far as Scotland and various places. It was really successful, and as you say, the results are worth the effort and time put in it. Reminds me of “the good lad days”
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Jul 15, 2022 20:46:45 GMT
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2022…….Part one, collecting. Need 4x more.
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Jul 15, 2022 21:48:20 GMT
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Our plums are tiny this year, probably lack of water, taste alright and loads of them so it'll just take even longer to prepare them, we make some into jam and stew the rest til they just soften then freeze them in bags ready to use in pies etc.
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mfrv1
Part of things
Posts: 267
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Jul 16, 2022 10:29:19 GMT
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Our plums are tiny this year Sorry, had to be done.
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Jul 16, 2022 17:45:09 GMT
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Our plums are tiny this year, probably lack of water, taste alright and loads of them so it'll just take even longer to prepare them, we make some into jam and stew the rest til they just soften then freeze them in bags ready to use in pies etc. Over here the yield is massively low and quality is less than somd years. I will cook them with stones in. Then strain in a colander. More jelly than jam. I love the skins and textures. Also not many trees about to harvest.
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Last Edit: Jul 16, 2022 20:52:46 GMT by grizz
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Jul 16, 2022 21:00:16 GMT
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Dry summer. Hot days, relative to monsoon weather, has made the yield of wild fruit less than usual as kevins and I both realised. So this year my fruit collection was in three different places. Near the vets was good for about 1.5kg and one of Sally, Bonnie and my walks has a few trees, of which only three had any accessible, usable fruit, it gave about 2.5kg as well, so I had 4kg by Saturday afternoon, stashed in the fridge. Perfect dog walking paths. Finding the fruiting trees becomes a game too. Sunday I went looking about 7 miles from home on the isle of grain down the road my electrician lodger goes to,work, I recalled there was fruit when he came here last year…… Booooom as Paul Y says. Jackpot. Of course I had to share with this girl, I thought she was a boy…….. Friendly. About 6 varieties of plums all told in my collection that made up 12kg raw with stones. Back home I cleaned them all, and weighed up the lot. 8kg from the trees in the lane, of course minus what the horses had. So a total of 12kg in fruit. I went to the village and bought 10kg of sugar as I use less than the traditional 1 to 1 mix of fruit, sugar and a cup of water per kilogram. Split the lot into 2 and 4 kilo and cooked them in two pots, with the stones in. MISTAKE. But I got the stones out when halfway through. Will do the second 6kg tonight after work. And will remove all the stones before cooking, another spectacularly shiite job, but has to be done. By 8.00pm I had bottled and cleaned up the kitchen. RESULT. Part two tonight then.
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As per the sloe gin thread from a few years ago, I did a hunt around online at the time to see if anyone down this end of the world sold sloe berries. Answer: no Then I had a hunt around to see if any nurseries sold sloe bushes. Answer: yes, but only every few years, from only one nursery on the other side of the country (sort of, Tasmania is still pretty far from me in Brisbane), and they only ship them in winter.
So I signed up to their mailing list, and promptly forgot about if for the next 3 or 4 years. Only vaguely recollecting about it when I tried a new uncommonly available sloe gin at a bar. It's not super popular here.
Anyway, a couple of months ago, I was digging through my spam email hunting for something unrelated, when I stumbled upon an email from the nursery (only 2 days before it was due to be deleted, too!).
They were available this year! So I ordered two, and informed my girlfriend's parents that I was going to bring a tree to plant in their yard somewhere when we came down for her birthday, so they best pick a good spot, because it was going to be spiky!
The trees arrived the other week, just in time for our trip to her parents, so I planted one in a big pot at home, and packed the other in to the car wrapped in cardboard so the dog didn't end up with superfluous airholes.
I'm keeping one with me at home in a pot, because we are renting, and I don't want to dig it out when we move. I have read that they can do ok as a sort of bonsai tree, so I guess we'll see how it goes!
The one at my girlfriend's parents place is located in the coldest part of Queensland, and although it's a bit drier, I think it has a reasonable chance of taking. All of this is a long winded way of saying: sometime in the future, I may be able to make my own sloe gin!
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Last Edit: Jul 22, 2022 5:25:34 GMT by varelse
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i managed to secure a jar of this plum jam earlier
all i can say is it’s delicious , not sweet a nice tangy kick to it
i can see me and the mrs fighting over and it won’t last long !!
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i managed to secure a jar of this plum jam earlier all i can say is it’s delicious , not sweet a nice tangy kick to it i can see me and the mrs fighting over and it won’t last long !! Nice visit to your vault. Glad you and the missus liked it……. I still think you lost in this round and I got the better deal. But, like I said, hopefully you will return the favour with a trip down here to rummage through my hoard and pillage my treasures without your missus ever knowing.
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Quick update, genuinely excited to see green buds on my bonsai bush! Wasn't expecting any movement for ages, and it's still mildly winter here. It must be confused because there's been a couple of hot days recently!
No movement on the one in Stanthorpe, but that's to be expected. There's still quite a bit of frost, and there was rumours of snow flurries today.
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