Ever been given a huge bag of fruit from a well meaning neighbor? We got a grocery sack of Santa Rosa Plums, from my home town variety, that weren't ripe enough to eat. I looked at these, and Dad's famous indifference to this fruit lead me to remember Mom making jam out of them. And I've been hunting plum jam at local grocery stores for two months now. Its kinda rare, and not a common taste. Not at all. Its like apricot, for its perfect blend of sweet and sour, and just the thing for a biscuit or scone. Apricot jam is easy to get, and tasty, but sometimes you just want plum. So I sliced up the not-yet-ripe fruit and slowly simmered it in a pot with a cup and a half of sugar and got awesome jam to show for it. The fruit cooked down anyway, and the flavor as it cooled was fantastic. I don't have pectin, so it won't gell properly, but I plan to buy some tomorrow and reheat it with the pectin so it will set properly. Pectin is like gelatin. It is what makes jam stick together.
The jam came out deep red, and just a perfect mix of sweet and sour. I put some of it on my vanilla pudding. It was great. I will put some on english muffins in the morning. If you have fruit that might spoil from summer harvest (now) please consider making jam and freeze some, put the rest in the fridge and eat till you can see spoilage.
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