Harvesting Plums!

So, it turns out that we have a couple of large, mature plum trees in our backyard. We found out the hard way last year (the first year we lived in this house) when they kind of took us by surprise. :) All of a sudden, there were a billion of these little cherry-sized plums in the trees. The next thing we knew, they had all fallen, and the raccoons were having a party in our backyard.

This year, we were more prepared. We've noticed them as they grew all spring, and I've been diligently picking them up off the ground after they fall. (as to not invite aforementioned raccoons.) We started picking them last weekend, but they weren't quite ripe yet.

We went back out today and picked.... 24 lbs of plums! (Or, as my friend, Sandy calls them, "Chums" - Cherry-Plums!)

I bought a fruit picker, but it is meant for larger fruit like oranges or peaches. It did help us reach and grab for branches. And when I say "We" here is the set-up:

Dick is up on a ladder, grabbing the branches and stripping the plums off them. Gay Boyfriend and I are below, catching the plums in a sheet. :)

Later, Christopher got clever and tied one side of the sheet to the ladder, which made it a one-man job, instead of two. We're learning!

The tree in the back of the yard is even larger, with an intimidating amount of plums. They weren't quite ripe for picking yet, so we'll wait until next weekend to get them.

In the meantime, my friend, Linda, is coming over tomorrow and she's going to teach me how to make Jam out of the plums! Whoo Hoo!! Plum jam for everyone! :)


Harvesting our plums!

24 lbs of plums!