How un-ripe are they? About to ripen, or hard as a stone? Some can ripen in a few days at room temperature. You can still make jam with them. After taking out the pits it would puree them, then cook into jam. Or if they are has hard as rocks, you can pickle them like olives and add a thai pepper.
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Mulberry leaves I think are one of their favorite foods. Our local groundhog nearly killed my Gerardi dwarf by repeatedly defoliating it. I have it better protected now, and seems to be in a good spot going into winter.
My neighbor says he trapped a groundhog in his yard a few years back in about 5 minutes using steamed broccoli. He looked up what to use for bait, saw “steamed broccoli”, put some in the trap, and looked out 5 minutes later to a groundhog! I have not repeated the experiment.
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@mrsg47 ,
The texture was not hard. It is somewhat soft not ripe enough to taste any good. I tried a few but they were bland. Some have been in the house for a week but not ripen up.
They are clean fruit, no damage so it is hard to throw away good unripe fruit.
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@jcguarneri
Good to know about steamed broccoli. It is definitely a less expensive option than my own fruit or a store bought cantaloupe.
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@Ahmad
I picked this last Zephyr on 9/7, ahead of another thunder storm. I had only 2 fruit from a graft. One dropped 5 days ago and had brown rot on It. I managed to eat the non-rot part. It was fine but brix was only 15.
This one showed crack but has not rot. It is huge , 11.3 oz, due to a lot of rain we have had.
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That’s a normal size for Zephyrs, I had ones close to a pound before. Leave it on the counter till it softens, and hopefully will be sweet enough. I really missed stone fruits this year… Had a handful of Honey Blaze, Honey Kist and Arctic Jay that were excellent, but just made me crave home grown fruit more… Still waiting for a few September Honey nectarines.
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I took it out of the fridge. I will check brix when we try it.
The size of Zephyr is impressive. I also have other large plums like Empress and Vision that taste very good. In this case, size matters 
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Now you just sounded the dinner bell for the night critters, lol.
Mike,
My husband told me when he walked outside around 9 pm last night, he saw an opossum walked by!! My blood pressure has not gone down since then.
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You can do jam. They do not have to be perfectly ripe for jam.
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I tried to talk to the jam maker, he said no. This is because the unripe ones tasted so bland. No sweetness, no aroma (at least 3-4 weeks from ripening.
I wish they were sour so I could pickle them. They are not sour and not very hard, either. I will do something with it, probably pickling, anyway.
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See, your brain waves summoned the night critters to your yard. 
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I set up a trap tonight, sacrificing my home grown apples as @Lodidian mentioned on another thread.
With my luck, I may get a skunk instead of an opossum tomorrow.
Will report.
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NOT a skunk!!! 
Pee yew!!
I had a friend that had a big dog that got skunked three times one summer. That dog was a slow learner.
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This guy is definitely getting too close to my potted fig trees. He’s been fattening up on the acorns for the past few weeks. He spends entire afternoons in my backyard.
There are usually 2 more that show up around the same time each day. One is a real chunker.
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Nothing in the trap last night. I baited it with Lodi. Maybe, the opossum and I have the same taste in apples. We don’t like Lodi.
@Marco yes, groundhogs seem to live in pair. Our last one was called Fat Chuck and it was huge.
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read somewhere they like cantaloupe.
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What’s the most successful Raccoon bait?I’m using marshmallows,which have worked before,but they only eat the few that are outside and won’t venture too far in.Mama must be teaching them well.I should name her,Obi-Wan.
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sardines. any flavor but hot sauce. pour the oil in a line from outside the cage to inside.
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I don’t want to be correct this time but I am.
This morning, skunk was in the trap.
And Opossum was in the tree. Quite brazen if you ask me!!!
What bait you use to lure an opossum into a trap?
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