The Satsuma plum produced a huge crop of fruit last year.
They were green… and the birds ignored them.
They started to colour up…and the birds still ignored them.
I picked a few…they still weren’t ripe.
I couldn’t get a net over the whole tree, so wound it through the branches as best as I could, hoping the swathes of white would deter them…and still the birds left them alone.
We were going to be hit with a week of temperatures in the high 30’s and mid 40’s, so I had to pick them all; otherwise they’d cook on the tree:
What to do with a bucket and a half of plums! I Googled, ‘plums thermomix’.
Came up with plum chutney and chinese plum sauce.
I made the chutney:
There’s also 2 jars of bread & butter cucumbers and some of the strawberries that are bearing now. The chutney was very good; I’d recommend it. I gave some plums to a friend and she made the plum sauce, but we both thought the chutney was the best.
So, despite the heat and the frizzled plants, I managed to get something of use from the garden.
Foodnstuff 
February 2, 2014 at 12:18 pm |
I thought of you when they predicted another warm one for the southern parts of Australia. Traditionally meant to be cooler climates, they seem to be copping the worst of the heat in Australia lately.
Glad to see your plums weren’t another casualty and you actually enjoyed the chutney. I love chutney too, but the choko variety.
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February 4, 2014 at 5:18 am |
Yeah I am a bit grouchy about how much heat we have copped this year. Tassie is SUPPOSED TO BE COLD! Sigh…stinking hot humid weather makes you feel so apathetic. Good to see someone making some use of their harvest 🙂
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February 6, 2014 at 5:42 pm |
I was gifted several kilos of plums this year so had a go at plum fruit leather. Given the humidity that came along with the heat I wasn’t able to dry them before the pulp mouldered but I did get 1 leather and about 2L of plum juice I’ve bottled to put into making tomato sauce when tomato glut time arrives. I definitely need more tomato sauce this year.
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February 6, 2014 at 6:21 pm |
Tomatoes are terrible this year! I can’t see me having a tomato glut. I’ve had a few cherries which I’m drying but the ‘biggies’ just aren’t coming. I don’t know if it’s the hot weather interfering with fruit set or not. Pumpkins and zucchinis are the same—no flowers, therefore no fruit. I’m wondering why I’m wasting water on them.
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February 6, 2014 at 6:27 pm |
I have a few zukes – enough to share – and my buttercup pumpkin is setting fruit too. I have lots of other leafy punks all over too but so far no flowers or fruit. They are still babies here though. My toms won’t produce the glut but I hope the co-op of which I am a part will buy in organic toms again like last year. I think I got 40kg last year but this year I think I’ll need closer to 80. I ran out of bottled toms last week, tomato paste was gone within weeks and the tomato sauce ran out months ago too. I don’t care what sort of toms they are, I just want a glut from somewhere.
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