Glenda,

It sounds like a perfectly fine way to make a small batch of plum butter for immediate use, but when making a larger batch, I can them in a BWB for safer, long-term storage of multi-jar batches.

We have a bumper crop of plums this year, so I'm in the middle of processing about 100 or so pounds from our first tree, with two more trees to follow after that.

I usually make Plum Jelly which not only tastes good but is a gorgeous color. Here's the recipe from the latest Ball Blue Book for it:

PLUM JELLY (Yield: about 8 half-pints)

5 and 1/2 C. plum juice (about 5 lbs. of plums)
1 pkg. powdered pectin
7 and 1/2 cups sugar

TO PREPARE JUICE: Select top quality fruit. Wash and stem fruits. Slightly crush fruit. Add 1/4 to 1/2 C. water for each quart of prepared fruit placed in saucepan. Cover, simmer until soft. Strain mixture through a damp jelly bag or several layers of cheesecloth to extract juice from pulp. Juice can be used immediately or can be canned or frozen for future use.

TO MAKE JELLY: Combine plum juice and powdered pectin in a large saucepot, stirring until pectin is dissolved. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Return to hard boil. Boil hard 1 minute while stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Ladle jelly into hot jars, leaving a 1/4" headspace. Adjust caps and process in a BWB for 10 minutes.

Here's a great recipe for a light, microwave plum butter:

LIGHT MICROWAVE PLUM BUTTER (Yield: 1 cup)

1 cup finely chopped peeled peaches
1 cup finely chopped plums
1 T. water
1/2 C. granular low-calorie sweetener
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground ginger

Combine peaches, plums and water in a 4-cup microwavable container. Microwave, uncovered, on High (100%) for 5 minutes, stirring once. Microwave, uncovered, on High for 10 minutes or until Mixture is very thick, stirring once every 3 minuts. Stir in the low-calorie sweetener and spices.

Spoon the plum butter into clean jars or plastic containers, leaving 1/2" head space. Cover with tight lids. Label and refrigerate jars in refrigerator for 1 week or freeze for longer storage.

Here's another recipe from Small Batch Preserving.

SPICED PLUM BUTTER (Yield: 3 cups)

10 plums, sliced
1 C. water
granulated sugar (for each cup of cooked and reduced plums, add 1 and 1/4 C. sugar)
1 cinnamon stick, about 4" long
4 whole cloves
1/2 t. ground nutmeg (optional)

1. Place plums and water in a medium, stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a full boil over high heat and then reduce heat. Simmer for 20 minutes or until plums are tender, stirring occasionally.

2. Run plum mixture through food processor, blender or food mill or food strainer. Process until almost smooth. Measure and return to saucepan. Add 1 and 1/4 cup of sugar for each 1 cup of plums.

3. Tie sugar and cloves into a spice bag and add to saucepan.

4. Return plum mixture to a boil, reduce heat and boil gently, covered, until mixture is very thick, stirring frequently.

5. Discard spice bag and stir in nutmeg, if using it.

6. Ladle into hot jars and process in a BWB for 10 minutes.

(You can use this same recipe to make Pear Butter, substituting 5 peeled, coarse, sliced pears.

ASIAN PLUM SAUCE, also from Small Batch Preserving

9 purple plums, washed and pitted
1 and 1/2 C. firmly packed brown sugar
1 C. cider vinegar
1 and 1/2 t. salt
1 and 1/2 C. finely chopped onion
3 gloves garlic, crushed
1/4 C. raisins
2 t. soy sauce
1/4 t. chili powder
1/8 t. ground cloves
1/8 t. cinnamon
1/8 t ginger
1/8 t. allspice

1. Finely chop plums in a food process or by hand. (I remove the pits from mine and run them through my Roma food strainer). You should end up with about 1 and 3/4 C. (if your plums are small, it will take more than 9 to arrive at this amount).

2. Combine plums, sugar, vinegar and salt in an enamel or stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil over high heat, uncovered, for 3 minutes, stirring periodically.

3. Assremaining ingredients and return to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until mixture has thickened, stirring periodically.

4. Ladle plum sauce into hot jars, leavning 1/2" headspace. Process in a BWB for 15 minutes.

Yield: 3 and 1/2 cups. Plum sauce can be served with roast pork, meatballs and Oriental foods like spring rolls and egg rolls. Some people use it as a dipping sauce for sausage rolls or cheese bites.

TRADITIONAL PLUM JAM (from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving)

6 cups cooked plum plum
1 package powdered fruit pectin
8 cups granulated sugar

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids.

2. In a large, deep stainless steel saucepan, combine the plum pulp and powdered pectin and stir until pectin is fully dissolved. Bring to a boil over high hear. stirring frequently. Add sugar all at once, returning mixture to a full boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and skim off foam.

3. Ladle jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Process in BWB for 10 minutes.

PLUM PRESERVES (Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving)

5 C. pitted halved tart plums
4 C. granulated sugar
1 C. water

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids.

2. Combine plums, sugar and water in a large, deep stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar.

3. Once sugar is dissolved, increase heat to high and boil hard, stirring frequently, until mixture thickens.

4. Remove from heat and test gel. If jam has reached the gel stage, skim off heat, and ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/4" head space.

5. Process in a BWB for 15 minutes.

You also can halve the plums and remove the pits and can or freeze plums in the sugar syrup of your choice.

You can dehydrate them.

Because plums tend to produce very heavily and you may get more plums than you can process at one time, you can boil down the plums into juice for jelly and then freeze the plum juice in the amount used in your plum jelly recipe. When you want to make plum jelly, thaw out that plum juice and make a batch of jelly from it.

TO FREEZE PLUMS: Select sweet, ripe but firm, plums. Water, halve, pit, dip into water/Fruit Fresh mixture and wet pack using water, plum juice or a sugar syrup.

You can use a sugar syrup made the day before and chilled, using (a) 4 C. water and 2 C. sugar for a thin sugar syrup; (b) 4 C. water and 3 C. sugar for a medium sugar syrup; or (c) 4 C. water and 8 and 2/3 C. sugar for a heavy syrup.

TO DEHYDRATE: You can dehydrate pitted plums whole or sliced into halves. Break the skin to help allow juices to evaporate. The time required varies with the size of the plums and the type of dehydrator used, but usually at least 10-12 hours is required since plums have a high water content. Drive them unil they have a heavily shriveled appeaarance. If properly dried, they'll store a long time. If dried but they still seem moist, I store them in the freezer.

There are a lot of other recipes that have you combine plums with other fruit for various jams.

Dawn

Thanks a million Dawn. I won't have nearly 100 lbs. I will copy all these.

Glenda,

You're welcome. I didn't expect 100 lbs. either. I was thinking maybe 75. The tree actually has produced 113 lbs. so far, and there's still a few left on the tree, but the 100 is what I have left to process after we've eaten all the plums we can eat fresh. There's two more plums trees just starting to ripen plums and I picked the first peaches today. I imagine by about Tuesday, the peach harvest will be in full swing. I'm considering packing my bags and running away from home until the fruit harvest is over. : )

Actually, I love having all the fresh fruit to can and freeze and dehydrate and I love knowing we'll be enjoying it for many months, but I just wish I could spread out the harvest a bit more.

It's a good thing the fruit is producing well, because I think the heat will keep the veggies from producing as well this year as they did last year. They've all produced well so far, but the heat is shutting down some things like the beans and tomatoes. I haven't had new fruit set on the tomatoes in a couple of weeks, except for the cherry types.

Dawn