I am so happy to say it’s a good plum year this year! (It’s a good year for our apples too.) I love purple plums and I must say, they taste best picked right off the tree in the backyard. (I’ve written about my adoration for the plum tree out back, in this post.) We’ve only had a few good plum years since I’ve lived here, most have been not so good. Last year I was excited about a single plum, and the years where even the local farmers didn’t have them I was bummed. I wasn’t expecting much this year because we didn’t get the plum tree pruned like the other fruit trees. The plum bounty is a nice and welcome surprise.

The first time I had ever tried a plum was after meeting Jeff (he introduced me to many new foods.) I had always associated plums with prunes and  thought the word prune was something people said with crinkled up noses and it sounded, well… pretty awful. Boy, was I wrong. But I still don’t like to use the word prune (it doesn’t sound very appetizing does it?), I just say ‘dried plum.’ It’s a funny quirk I have. Well, we won’t be drying our plums this year because our dehydrator broke. We’re mostly eating them fresh. 

We’ve been picking them here and there as they ripen. Yesterday there were a bunch at the peak of ripeness, so we got pickin’.

 Thank goodness for this handy dandy picker Jeff picked up years past. (Here is a similar one.) We’ve used it for apples, peaches, and plums. Jeff has a knack for this thing.

 The “arm” extends far, so you can pick from the ground. Later we got out the ladder and used it with the picker to get the really high ones.

I was bummed when I saw bugs in many of the plums, but Jeff pointed out that they only were in a tiny portion of each plum. When you take that little part out, you’ve got a perfectly good plum!

 At first I was taking the pits out of the middle and giving the rest of the fruit to Bracken. But he started biting the plums, eating them, and throwing out the pits himself.

 There was excitement with each plum that came out of the tree.

 Then Bracken would place each plum in the basket.

 Watching for more. 

Sometimes picking the plums made others fall to the ground. Bracken was on the lookout for those.

 Another fruit to enjoy by the fruit lover. 

(This picture reminded me he needs another haircut, it’s starting to get in his eyes.)

 Then we hung the basket in the tree (when Bracken had eaten plenty.) You can see where a giant branch broke years back when it got so loaded with fruit.

 Some fell out of the tree that weren’t ripe yet. Others were ripe to perfection. We gathered them all. Some are ripening more in the kitchen. The others went in the fridge.

 Feeling mighty grateful for a good plum year!

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