Easy Stewed Plums

Hello there, welcome back to another post from the Vandemonian homesteader. I Hope you’ve been doing alright this past week. Things are looking up for me here in Tassie. I Finally got rid of that flu and I have been busy gathering goodies from the garden. With summer coming to an end, I hope your gardening is starting to pay off too.

I absolutely love living in this part of Tasmania. Most houses here were built in a time when big backyards with veggie patches and fruit trees were the standard. Over the years, some properties lost their backyards through subdivision, while others made them less work-intensive.

But you know what? Despite all the changes, the fruit trees were usually left in place. It’s common to see a random apple, pear, or stone fruit tree in people’s backyards. These trees have had plenty of time to grow and now produce more fruit than the family can handle. So, this time of year, it’s common for folks to gift each other bags of home-grown fruit like apricots, apples, and pears. It’s not uncommon to show up at a friend’s place with a bag of fruit or to practically force a bag onto any guest who visits.

Now, why am I going on about fruit, you might be wondering. Well, I recently got a huge bag of plums from a friend’s backyard tree. Just like I mentioned, their tree is overflowing with plums, and they’re probably tired of them after eating them year after year.

As much as I appreciate the gesture, there’s no way I can eat that many plums before they start going bad. And even if I could, I’d be stuck within sprinting distance of a toilet for a day. So, to solve this I thought I’d stew them with a few spices for extra flavour.

Stewed spiced fruit is delicious and its a fantastic, quick and easy way to preserve excess fruit. Perfect for my current situation.

Stewed Plums

For this recipe, I used,  

• 2kg of plums washed, halved with the stones removed
• 400gm raw sugar
• 6-7 pieces of whole Star anise
• 4tsp ground cinnamon
• splash of water

Place all the ingredients into a large, thick-bottomed pot and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once the pot is boiling, reduce the temperature and allow the plums to simmer. At this point, you may need to check the taste and add extra sugar if it’s not sweet enough for you. Allow the plums to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Transfer the plums to your chosen container. I have used a few plastic takeaway containers, but if you prefer to use some sterilized jars, they will work just as well.

These will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days, but I like to split mine up over several containers and hold them in the freezer until they are needed.

Not only are they great on ice cream as is, but provided you account for the extra moisture, any stewed fruit can also be mixed through cake batter.  

The recipe above also applies to other fruits. In fact, it works great with apples and pears. If you’re also interested in adding extra spices, cardamom pods or a classic cinnamon and nutmeg mix can be added instead of the star anise. It all comes down to your personal tastes. Feel free to have a play, and if you find a combination you love, why not mention it in the comments?

Before I call it a day, I’ve got some awesome news to share. The Vandemonian homesteader now has a Facebook page! You might have noticed the new icons below the site name at the top of the page. Not only will I be sharing the latest posts from the main blog, but every now and then, I’ll drop some quick updates from the field as I keep working towards my goal. If you enjoy what I’m doing here, hop on over, check it out and give the page a follow to stay in the loop with all my projects and thoughts. And if you have any friends who may also be interested in what I get up to feel free to share the page, the more the merrier!

With that done, I’m off to grab some fruit and ice cream. Next week, I’m gonna whip up some kimchi, it’s a great way to preserve your wombok or napa cabbage. Until then, thanks for stopping by, and have a good one. Catch you later.