North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

We have a tendency here to call fresh plums plums and dried ones prunes.  Some use the term prunes for European plums, and plums for American/Japanese.  I use prune for the elongated, sweet European plums.   Read your recipes carefully to make sure whether they mean fresh or dried plums.

 

Plums, in general, dry very well.  Prune-plums, like your Stanleys, – those very sweet, elongated, European plums - are the only type that dries well whole or simply pitted, and needn’t be blanched for pre-sterilization.  The reason is the very high sugar content, as sugar acts as a preservative.

 

So, your Stanleys can be dried whole or pitted.  They’ll dry faster whole if you check the skin with a 35 second plunge in boiling water.  After that, your procedure will be different if you sun-dry or use a dehydrator.  Whether to sulfur fruit beforehand is something food preservers are divided on; IMHO, sulfur is entirely natural and proper sulfuring improves sun-dried prunes.

 

To pit, should you want to: Stanleys pit easily.  You might be able to find a plunge-style plum pitter, but they don’t always have the space for a Stanley – still, if you can find a sturdy one that works, they’re handy.  Otherwise you can make a long vertical slit, open the plum partially like a book, and work the pit out with your paring knife or fingers, and close the plum before drying; or halve the plums and remove the pits, and dry the halves. 

 

Yes, dry them ripe.  How long will depend on your method and conditions – maybe 8-16 hours.

 

~ Stephen

 

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Lisa D. Ishimuro
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 5:09 AM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] Stanley plums

 

Alan's post last week was a real help to me as my Stanley plum always yields but I was in a quandray as to when and if the fruit ever ripened.  Now I know.  The tree still had fruit on it, but some had brown rot (not that many) as I never sprayed this year. Yesterday I picked and filled a large colander and made jam. About 1/2 were very ripe, the others, still a litte hard, but fine for the jam. Delicious!! I used the Ball powdered pectin (took 6 cups fruit and 8 (!) cups sugar) and it set fine.  Now I have a question, has anyone dried this fruit, at home, for prunes?  I found a recipe I want to try for a prune & fig chutney, with red wine and honey, and it calls for these plums, rather prunes.  How long to they take to dry? Should they be very ripe when dried?   Now I will look for the variety that Alan recommended because my Stanley is delicious when ripe.  I guess all these plums ripen sporadically?

Yesterday was so hot and humid I stayed in and canned all day......

Zone 6, SE Pa.

Lisa Ishimuro
Environmental Protection Specialist II
Bucks County Conservation District
1456 Ferry Road
Doylestown, Pa. 18901
215-345-7577 Ext. 102

lishimuro@yahoo.com

www.bucksccd.org