Plum Crazy

 It is the time of year that our plum trees are loaded with ripe delicious plums. Hundreds of pounds of them. But in this case, as my Great Aunt said about everything in the garden, they do "all come at once". And it can drive you crazy.

  In the span of less than a week all the plums here, at least our variety, get ripe and fall off the trees. You have to be ready. Ready to, well, pick like crazy. It has been just three days of ripe plums as I write this  and already it is almost the end of our plum season. But they are so good. Too good in fact. I have eaten my share of them and will spare you the details. Let's just say it's been a good run, but it's time to move past plum season.

 And that's why people used to can fruit. In the days before you could go to the store and buy a plum any time of year, or preserves, people caught the season and made their own. You cannot compare these plums to store bought plums. Fruit in the store is often waxed or genetically altered for long shelf life, and that effects the quality of the fruit. You lose so much taste and nutrients. However, you don't have so many! And you don't go plum crazy trying to pick them all and or eat them.

 I looked up the origin of "Plum Crazy" and the true meaning, and found out it may actually be "Plumb Crazy"and got a very confusing run around as to the true meaning of the phrase. It started to drive me a little crazy, so I just dropped it. Plums are in fact a little, well, they can drive you crazy.   They fall from the trees and then the bee's come, and fruit fly's followed quickly by the yellow jackets,  if you don't rake them up quick. They are a deep purple and get all over, staining  the ground , clothes and shoes as you rake. They are heavy, a mess. But worth it I guess.

  I guess if you don't rake them up and the bugs don't  get them you can have a lot of prunes.  Prunes are like giant  raisons, but from a plume and not a grape. Many companies now call them dried plums instead of prunes. "Prune" became un-PC over time and they thought it would be better to just change the name. So what about prune juice? Dried plum juice just doesn't sound right to me. I will have to check on that.

 Plums are packed with vitamins and antioxidants. Very good for you and also you digestive system. But be careful as mentioned, or they... Never mind. I will say one thing though, I was constipated a week ago. Not anymore!

 I am not actually sure what variety our plums are. I checked google. I asked people. People have told me they were one kind, then told me they were another kind. They are purple. Plums all kind of look the same when you check. I did find out from an old time fruit preserver our plums were no good for preserving. I was convinced they were Santa Rosa Plums and she was excited. So I picked her buckets of them hoping to cash in on some jars of plume jam.  She was a master. But when I got to her house she was very upset with me and said my plums were "no good!" Ugh. She was 90 something and very blunt. So I drove home with my buckets of plums. Now that drove me crazy. 

So what do you do with 500 or so pounds of ripe plums that all come at once? I can't possible eat them all and I was too late to email help, or a program to help feed people. I had it all planned. Then they all got ripe in one day and here  we are. I am taking a bucket to loaves and fishes today. But they are squishy and these kinds are very juicy and it just turns into a big mess. I end up purple, my clothes, everything. Smelling of plumes. Ugh!

So in three days of ripe plums I have eaten about 80 plums I would say, with another 2,000 or so to go. Maybe I should learn how to make plum brandy and just do that with them. It would help with all this craziness. Relax in the shade of a plum tree and let the plums fall on my head, I wouldn't  care, with a glass of plum brandy!