Forest Gump of Plums

I am the Forest Gump of plums. Last year it was cherries.  This year plums.

This year all of our plum trees have gone into overdrive producing.  So many plums.  So many types.  I feel like Forest Gump


Wild plums, Italian plums, Santa Rosa plums.

Plum jam, plum jelly, plum pulp frozen to make more plum jam and jelly, plum bread, plum cookies, plum crisp, plum tortes, plum pies, plum sauce, dried plums, frozen plums, canned plums, fresh plums.  

FREE plums.  Please take some of these plums.  Begging people to come an pick them before our deck is totally spotted with rotten plums dropping off of the tree.

I can't stand to see the fruit go to waste so I spend my time preserving, cooking, freezing and drying.

Here is a recipe that freezes well.  The bread is better after sitting and 'aging' for several days, otherwise, it is cakelike, crumbly and doesn't cut well.  The Italian plums are a pleasing blend of sweet and tart that doesn't make the bread gooey.

Catching Up

Wow. Long time no post.

Has it really been 8 months since I retired? Time has just zipped by. People keep asking me if I'm bored or miss my work. Like I said in my Every Day is Saturday post.....are they NUTS? No way. I have more to do than ever and the bonus is that it is things that I want to do.

Having worked since the age of 15 and with the exception of a few months of maternity leave 33 years ago and a 5 month stretch of unemployment, when the government regulated my job out of existence, I have worked straight through for 47 years. 47 years of working for other people and for myself. 47 years of structuring my life around other people's work schedule, other people's demands and trying to squeeze in the fun things, recreation and the necessary household chores that keep the house from crumbling around you into big dust bunny piles.

So to recap....what have I been doing and what has been happening in the last 8 months in no particular order

1.This one IS the most important however. I became a grandmother to the most adorable, gorgeous, smart,talented etc etc grandson. I've been able to see him once. But now that my daughter and family are moving back to the Bay Area....I will be able to visit more often.


2. Yes. We did get a refrigerator. And we are keeping the little fridge on the deck for beer and wine.








3. Started knitting again and made a pair of nice wool socks to wear around the house. I plan to make many more pairs for myself and for the Dumbplumber so that when winter comes our feet won't have popcicle toes. Also some hats for a dear friend who is going to have chemo treatments soon and will be hairless.

4. BIG PROJECT!! Went through my craft magazines and clippings that I have been collecting since the early 1960's. Organized them by publisher and by date and put them into containers that can be stood upright on the shelving in my personal (not work) office. Now in the process of scanning the projects that I want to start on and categorizing by type. Knitting: hats, scarves, sweaters. Sewing: toys, aprons, decorative. Weaving. etc etc etc. This is a project for the winter months.

5. Gardening. This is something I rarely had time for and this year I was able to really utilize the raised beds and realized that the deer are eating up all of my hard work. It is WAR!! Oh YEAH its on. Next year......a fence around the garden. Maybe something like THIS.....
Ok....dream on.

6. Speaking of office. When I closed my financial planning practice, we transfered all of the furniture upstairs into my husband's, and now my office, for his business. In addition to all of the fun stuff, I am also the bookkeeper, record clerk, ordering clerk, banker and bill collector.

Part of office set up before decorating.

Our next goal for the office is to find a neat art deco style buffet to turn into a wet bar where we can display our collection of crystal decanters and have a cocktail at the end of the day.

Cooking, organizing recipes (another collection years in the making), canning fruit, sewing aprons, making stuffed toys, cleaning. I know, most of those things sound like work and not all that much fun, especially the cleaning, but when you have never been able to really get to it.....it is satisfying to accomplish that closet cleaning and pruning that hasn't been done for years.

SO much to to. SO much fun. Everyday seems like Saturday.

Retirement IS everything it was cracked up to be.

I'm Jammin' ..Hope You Like Jammin' Too

You can feel Fall in the air. The mornings are crisp, cool and clear. Some of the trees have even begun to turn color. The fruit trees are loaded and people who have gardens are desperate to unload their excess onto anyone who will take squash, zucchini or anything else.

After our war with the robins and race to see who would get the cherries from the sour cherry tree....we won by the way.... we have been inundated with wild plums and peaches. Hating to see this bounty go to waste, I've been canning and jammin' (Bob Marley reference here)

Wild plums are something that you have to experience and are hard to explain just how fablulous they are.



Slightly smaller than ping pong balls, they are sour. Pucker your face sour. However, once made into a jam or jelly. They turn from reddish yellow sour balls into the best sweet and tart reddish orange jam. Some years we have a lot. Some years, not so much. It even varies from tree to tree. One tree will bloom and bear fruit, while the tree right next to it will be just a week behind or ahead on the blossom schedule and be barren. Timing is everything.

This year I made two batches of wild plum jam. We gave most of it away as gifts and ate it all up.

Peaches Galore

My husband oversees some properties that are owned by absentee landlords. This year one of the peach trees was loaded, almost to the breaking point, with small peaches. Since no one is going to be coming up to use the fruit, we get to harvest it when we can. From the peaches I made Peach Jam, Sour Cherry Peach Jam and Peach Barbeque Sauce. There were so many peaches we gave over half of them away to other ladies (gluttons for punishment) who also like to cook and can.

These are just a few of the jars of the different jams. All in all about 4 dozen jars.


I love the jewel tones they have when the light shines through. Almost like a stained glass window in a church. The miracle of being able to preserve the bounty of summer and fall and enjoy throughout the cold winters.

In the freezer are still more peaches and sour cherries.

As if this all wasn't enough. I have a friend who's husband made a huge and I mean huge over an acre garden. She has loaded me up with green beans. So.....spicy garlic dilled beans.

War With The Robins

Our war with the robins, who are aptly named Turdus Migratorius begins this time of year each year. The little turds are greedy gluttons.



spot the yard art?

Some years we have cherries. Some years we don't. This year we had a LOT of cherries and it was a race between us and the robins on who was going to get them first.



We have several cherry trees on the property. Some sweet and this tree which produces fabulous sour cherries in enormous quantities. The issue is that until they are fairly ripe, they are really really sour. Once they are ripe we have a window of about 5 days to get them before the little Turdus do.

So.....I've been picking and picking and picking cherries. Then pitting and pitting and pitting.

I feel like Forest Gump. Cherry jam, cherry jelly, cherry syrup, cherry cobbler, cherry ice-cream, cherry pies and bags and bags of frozen pitted cherries.

At least the rotten robins didn't get the lion's share this year.

Next......blackberries. I really am a glutton for punishment.