I have never known our Greengage tree to be as full of fruit as it is this year. Branches are bending down, and some have broken under the weight. The fruit is also seriously bug free; when preparing the fruit (below), I found just one that had a 'lodger'. Usually they are the opposite.
I halved the plums to remove the pips, then put them into a bowl of water with Lemon juice to keep them from discolouring. They were then packed into sterilised jars and topped with a syrup of 1 pt water to 8 oz sugar. They were sterilised at a 'rolling boil' for 1 hr.
Here they are after a good clean.
As you can see, they have really shrunk in the jars and lots of juice has come out. Still, I know they'll be delicious; some Greengages and a dollop of thick cream will lift the spirits on a cold Winter's night.
They look a bit bizarre, I'm not sure if I'll bottle any more. I'll just stew them and have them fresh.
21 comments:
What a lot! Do they freeze well?
Beautiful
Cro, the way to avoid that shrinkage is to weigh out the sugar, then do the stoning and layer sugar and fruit in a bowl.... leave for 24hrs.... pack the fruit with as much sugar taken off as possible into the jars as you would the fresh... then make the syrup with the sugar and liquid that is in the bowl you layered them in.
Basically, you preshrink the fruit as you would cukes for pickling... only, instead of rinsing and discarding salt... you use all the sugar and the juice it has pulled out to make a syrup that can be almost half juice!!
And also, overpack those jars, really stuff them in... then add another half on the top before you add syrup and screw the lid down.
Also, a more effective sterilisation is the commercial dry method... put jars in oven with the lid loosened [1/4 or 1/2 turn usually] and set temperature for 110 Centipede.... when it gets there, set timer for 30 minutes... at the end of the 30 minutes screw the lids down tight and leave in oven until cold'ish.
I have heard of greengages but never seen any before reading your blog. How do you know when they are ripe since they don't turn purple like regular plums?
Yes, we have some in the freezer along with some Peaches.
They certainly taste good!
That sounds like a very good method. I did stuff the jars full but you can see the result. As for your final para', I do exactly that with the lids with my boiling water method. We all live and learn!
When they are really ripe they turn yellowish, but by then they are SO SWEET they are inedible (for me anyway).
Is this the reason you have a plummy English accent?
I don't think I've ever tasted a greengage, though I remember my grandmother had some growing in her veg. garden, along with gooseberries. I wonder if they are no longer a fashionable fruit?
I have a Surrey/Sussex accent which is highly influenced by Victoria Plums.
They are long out of fashion, as are gooseberries and Rhubarb. Anything that takes some time to prepare is no longer of interest to the Pizza generation.
We haven't been given any plums this year . The freezer is full of stewed apricots.
That's a very simple preserving method. Do you or Lady M make jam?
Cro, by extracting some of the juice into the sugar for the syrup, those hard greengages become much softer and pack far more readily with less "syrup space".
The commercial method came from one of those daytime TV "How It's Made" programmes and I have used it ever since with bottling.
Preserving the bounty of summer.
I used to make Raspberry Jam, and Lady M made Apricot Jam. Both were excellent. We haven't made any this year.
And lovely to open them up in Winter.
I can see the logic behind it. I hadn't realised the huge water content of the fruit.
I like them best straight off the tree.
Fresh fruit is the ideal. You've got a great harvest. I've only had dark colored plums. Do your plums taste the same?
Me too Weave. Check them for bugs; and eat!
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