My mother used to can whole plums in a medium syrup, pit included, when I was young. I don’t know what kind they were, but we LOVED them and enjoyed them throughout the winter, along with the peaches and pears she would can. They were fairly large, golf ball sized, and dark purple.
Anyway, I was wondering how many of you can plums whole. What varieties are your favorites?
Thanks!
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When I was little my mother caned plums pit and all. I don’t know for sure but I think they were Stanley. I currently have some E plums that fruited for the first time last year. I lost them all to curc. Will be more vigilant this year.
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I don’t can many fruits but I have canned Italian prune plums in light syrup. Hot pack worked much better than cold pack.
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I usually hot pack as well. I get less siphoning, less “shrink” and it just works better for me. I can peaches, pears, and cherries. Have done wild plums in the past, but won’t repeat as they have too much pit to meat ratio.
Mark, are there different varieties of Italian prune plums (IPP), or is THAT the variety? I found Fellenberg was synonymous with IPP. As you can tell, I have no knowledge about this plum…
@Graftman, I wish you success against PC this year!!
Prune plums can beautifully! I’m currently eating the last season’s batch.
They do siphon. Use more headroom, then let them sit 5 minutes in the canning bath.
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Well, I don’t have much knowledge about them either! In fact, mine is from a root sucker a friend gave me years ago, and it could be anything - except that it looks like every labelled IPP I’ve ever seen, and like all the prunes growing in the neighborhoods around me. I have one friend who dries his, stone in. They’re freestones when fully ripe.
I’d never heard the term "siphon before you and Lois used it. Is that where the juice is drawn out of the fruit (by the sugar?) during canning? Blueberries are terrible for that!
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Mark,
I am intrigued by these IPP. Will look into them further.
Siphoning is a term used to describe the loss of liquid from your canning jars during processing. Can happen in both boiling water bath and pressure canning. So the jars go in “full” with liquid up to the required head space, but they come out with a less liquid in the jars (say 1" to 2" can be common). It was siphoned out and is now in the canner! There are multiple reasons for this, but I probably don’t need to go into that here…
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For me Mirabelle de Nancy, Damas d’août
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Thanks @Arhus76. It seems like Mirabelle de Nancy is quite popular. I don’t know anyone around me that grows one, but I should definitely see how they would do here.