Foraged Food Thread

[NoWiser]

Turned a gallon of black raspberries into a bunch of raspberry peach jam with the kids today. It turned out so good I just might need to make another batch this weekend.

 

[kansasdad]

Sandplum harvest in SouthCentral Kansas is a big ol' bust this year.

Mrs kansasdad and I were rolling by 7 am Saturday, as the heat and humidity were expected to rise to "dangerous" levels later in the day. Driving west, we headed to our public lands spots in hopes of finding the base for sandplum jam and syrups, with a side trip to a roadside blackberry patch we discovered last year.

Cue the Price is Right loser sounds, as it seems from friends across Kansas that they were seeing almost no plums in the thickets. And that is what we found in the first stop of the morning, and it never got any better. Some years I've found that some micro-climates that seemed to be protect the plum bushes from a later freeze better than others.

Everywhere we checked, the lack of fruit was quite sad. This one branch was all that one entire thicket contained.


Even the blackberry patch was saddening, with small fruits.




It was a good morning afield with my lovely wife. Fortunately there are multiple gallon ziplock bags of 2021 sandplum pulp waiting to be canned, so we will not have to do without. And the family and land owners that look forward to gifts of sandplum jam will also be able to enjoy Kansas sunshine in jam form.

 

[JShane]

Chickasaw plums I found today. Not a lot left as I think the season has passed but I'm gonna give making jelly a shot with this small amount

 

[Gellar]

View attachment 231084Chickasaw plums I found today. Not a lot left as I think the season has passed but I'm gonna give making jelly a shot with this small amount

Plum season is just starting here. I eat a lot off the tree and I save enough to make a plum sauce for the first wood duck I kill in September.

 

[kansasdad]

@JShane those sure like our sand plums.

Plum season is just starting here. I eat a lot off the tree and I save enough to make a plum sauce for the first wood duck I kill in September.

Unless our sand plums are almost overripe, I never try to eat ours. Too tart to enjoy.

 

[Gellar]

@JShane those sure like our sand plums.



Unless our sand plums are almost overripe, I never try to eat ours. Too tart to enjoy.

Our wild ones aren’t tart. They are delicious!

 

[JShane]

Plum season is just starting here. I eat a lot off the tree and I save enough to make a plum sauce for the first wood duck I kill in September.

That right there warms my heart. Looking forward to the plate em up picture of that. This tree I found the plums on is near my wood duck hole. Figured there be nothing finer than a warm biscuit with Chickasaw jelly after a limit of woodies this winter.

 

[JShane]

@JShane those sure like our sand plums.



Unless our sand plums are almost overripe, I never try to eat ours. Too tart to enjoy.

I believe they are either one in the same or in the same family. Possibly a regional variation. Any special tips on making the jelly?

 

[kansasdad]

Mrs kansasdad tells me she makes sandplum jam, not jelly, so it isn’t “clear” in the final product. She blanches the plums and the uses a cone shaped strainer/rolling pin shaped wooden instrument to de-skin and remove pits from the pulp.



The above photo was from a current Amazon offering. According to the listing, this cone shaped strainer is a “chinois”. She has two antique ones, with both having an amazing patina of fruit stains on the “rolling pins”.

She also says any recipe for plum jam will translate well. She says there are lots of recipes to be found on Al Gore’s internet

Over the years with a fair amount of trial and error determining how much of the boiled liquid to be added back to the strained pulp to create the final jam (plus added canning pectin) yields an amazing final product.

 

[JShane]

lemme go ahead and just off this up right here for that response. Props to you and the Mrs.

 

[JShane]

and while I'm at it. Look what I just found this morning. There will be jelly making for sure now.

 

[jlong17]

If you guys are looking for fresh ideas with all that fruit, I've got one. We had an abundance of jam, so I picked up a Jerky Gun and started making a bunch of fruit leather with it. Turned out amazing. The gun applied a nice even coating, and then 6 hours in the dehydrator at 145. Delicious!!

 

[Gellar]

If you guys are looking for fresh ideas with all that fruit, I've got one. We had an abundance of jam, so I picked up a Jerky Gun and started making a bunch of fruit leather with it. Turned out amazing. The gun applied a nice even coating, and then 6 hours in the dehydrator at 145. Delicious!!

Good snack while hunting!

 

[JShane]

waiting on it all to set up.

 

[JShane]

 

[PAGOAT]

I picked a few blueberries the other day and found a lot of blackberries for this coming weekend

 

[JShane]

Nice work. You had me when you said "few" I did not expect to see 6 gallons.

 

[kansasdad]

View attachment 231363

Nice looking result. That represents lots of wonderfully flavored toast, pancakes, waffles (and Monterey Cristo sandwiches) in your future.

Your final product has a decidedly red/purple tone, while Mrs kansasdad‘s jam is more orange/yellow.

We have a tradition of giving a little cheer with every “pop” as the lid announces it is vacuum sealed.

 

[JShane]

This was the muscadine grapes I found a day later. The plums are next, though I need more jars. I didnt realize how much the grapes I haved picked were gonna make

 

[Gellar]

We have a tradition of giving a little cheer with every “pop” as the lid announces it is vacuum sealed.

we do the same thing!