Time to go plum crazy

      The season of plenty has been in full swing for quite a few weeks now, we've had the first potatoes, carrots and asparagus and now it's time for the orchard fruit to show its true colours.
      The Laxton's Early Plums have quickly come and gone because of the heat but now the Tsar plums are cropping brilliantly. The day before yesterday I managed to pick over seven pounds of plums from the lower branches on just one tree.

      This particular variety are fantastic for both eating and cooking because the plums are so sweet, juicy and bursting with flavour, when they are ripening the colour and density of them makes the fruit look like giant bunches of grapes.

      The first pick of the plums has been converted into eight jars of plum jam and three Kilner jars of sweet pickled plums. Because they are so juicy the pickling has also yielded a couple of large jars of sweet plum vinegar that the Boss is going to bottle into smaller quantities to use in the making of salad dressings. That'll be a treat too.

      Now, the only problem with these plums and the three varieties to follow is that when I am walking the two Jack Russells or picking the plums I always eat quite a few so I think I'll have to exercise some self control to control the inevitable purgative side-effects.
      Who cares, they're delicious.

      On the walk back we can see that the first of the eating apples are slowly colouring up like a red traffic light but the Discovery apples still have a week or two to go to reach that perfect state.
      Yet more to look forward to. Marvellous.