Freezing plums?

cookiebarrel, Jan 9, 10:00pm
What is the best way to do this. Have been given a bucket of yummy plums and don't want to waste them so decided it would be best to freeze most of them for now. Also once frozen can I use them for jams or sauces once thawed? Never frozen them before always straight into jam, sauces and eating, but not got the time to do this just now. Thanks for your advice in advance.
clair4, Jan 9, 10:07pm
Freeze them for a while then give them a shake to make them free flow and not all stuck together. I have always done this with not trouble. Plum jam is no nice.
cookiebarrel, Jan 9, 10:09pm
Thanks clair4. Now a silly question do you freeze them raw or do you cook them and if raw does it matter if some have split skins?
samanya, Jan 9, 10:25pm
You can freeze them either cooked or raw.
I find that using frozen fruit/tomatoes for sauces etc . they seem to have much more liquid & need longer boiling to evaporate it off.
I freeze black boy peaches with skins on & when I come to use them, a quick dunk in hot water & the skins just slide off & I would imagine that plums would be the same.
I'm sure there are those out there that have more experience than me, so I hope they share.
Edited to add . split skins should be OK as long as the fruit is not deteriorating.
In the mean time. I hope that helps.
cookiebarrel, Jan 9, 10:27pm
Yes very helpful samanya. Thank you.
samanya, Jan 10, 12:14am
I envy you . my young plum tree had a huge amount of blossoms, with heaps of fruit setting & then we got a vicious north west wind & that weaned a lot out , but still looking like a good crop & bugger me, we got another spate of winds & I can hardly find one on my tree now . so enjoy the bounty of plums.
cookiebarrel, Jan 10, 5:45am
I am lucky to have a nice neighbour with an abundance of plums this year. Only got a couple of struggling feijoa trees on my new place. Hope to be planting fruit trees around the place once I learn what does best here. Moving from the Bay of Plenty to the Manawatu and leaving my lovely fruit trees behind has been a bit of a wrench. Need to plant so many down here to get back what I lost. All we are growing here at present is hay! And I left a lot of jars behind when we shifted which I now regret. Should not have listened to those who asked me why I was going to take them with me as I wouldn't need them. Knew I should have trusted my own instincts, especially about all my lovely sauce bottles.
punkinthefirst, Jan 13, 8:16pm
For any jams I plan to make, I like to weigh and stone the fruit, and cook them to a pulp with a tiny amount of water. If my jam measurements are in volumes, I measure by volume.This is so that I can take a bag of pulp out of the freezer, leave to thaw overnight, add the right amount of sugar, and have a few jars of fresh jam in a quick time. Bags of pulp take up a small space in the freezer, and I'm also tending to make jam later in the year, when its a bit cooler and I have more time. The less water, the better. you'll only be boiling it away when you make the jam. Label the bags with the quantity of pulp, and also how much sugar you'll need for your jam.
I find that large zip-lock bags or 2 litre ice-cream containers are perfect for freezer storage, so long as you make doubly sure they're properly sealed.
punkinthefirst, Jan 13, 8:27pm
Welcome to the lower half, cookiebarrel.
You'll find that almost anything except oranges will do fine in the Manawatu. That wind from the West is the killer, though, so you'll need wind-cloth or a shelter belt, or both!
Have a look in op-shops for jars - and for your sauce, wine or beer bottles are good. I have a wine corker, and a beer capper, and tend to use the small green and brown lager bottles. New caps are cheap, & easily sterilized. iI you choose the twist-top bottles, you can reuse the cap to seal the bottle while you're using it, and keep it in the fridge.
cookiebarrel, Jan 14, 7:50am
Thanks for the welcome punkinthefirst and for the advice. Nine months yesterday (gosh has it really been that long?) since I moved down here and wish I had done it 30 years ago. Absolutely loving it and don't even mind the wind. Does explain why most of the trees lean in the same direction though! Would lemons do better than oranges as I miss the lemon trees I had up in Te Puke and so want to get a couple planted here.
Was up your way last week and it seems a lot dryer than here. Looks a nice little town and noticed a couple of shops I want to get back up and visit.
punkinthefirst, Jan 15, 6:50am
Yep, lemons seem to do well down this way, though you have to choose a sheltered area.and a lemon breed that doesn't mind the odd frost (and cover them against frost while the trees are young). We don't get many frosts here, but just occasionally a doozy will hit us. Feijoas are a good wind shelter.Peaches, nectarines, plums, quinces, cherries, apricots, pears and apples all do well. When I was growing up in Otorohanga, which has a similar climate, my parents had a 2 acre orchard which included all the above plus old kiwifruit vines and figs.I guess it all depends what you like to eat! Sometimes, though, when fruit is readily available from the orchards at good prices, it makes little sense to grow them. (and never mind oranges. Gisborne oranges are reasonable at many service stations during late winter/early spring).
Always dry here, but then the local farmers plan for that. I retired here from up around Taupo. It took a bit of adjusting to the dry, but the friendliness of the people here more than makes up.
meg1971, Jan 15, 1:58pm
I agree with samanya. They have heaps more liquid. tried making plum jam with frozen plums. Took ages! and then congealed far to thick. Will try again this year with fresh
cookiebarrel, Jan 15, 9:17pm
Know what you mean about the friendliness of the people, they are awesome!
whitehead., Jan 15, 10:33pm
i like free stone plums and i take the stones out and toss them in a freezer bag and just take out what i need i love fresh made plum jam and plum puddings or pies with cream . they are very handy .
whitehead., Jan 15, 10:35pm
cut your tomayoes inhalf and deseed them before freezing will cut some of the juice .
whitehead., Jan 15, 10:35pm
tomatoes not tomayoes sorry
uli, Jan 17, 1:54am
I usually cut the plums in half, removing the stone then freeze them in a single layer. Then use them in winter for a fresh plum cake etc.
beaker59, Nov 3, 11:51am
Planning to do final batch of Plum Jam tomorrow, not been a great year for plums for us. Shame as I plan to prune the tree right back this winter to restock my supply of wood for the smoker, Plum is the best wood for fish smoking. Hopefully my supply will last until Marmalade season :)

Great year for fish though so smoked heaps of Snapper kingfish and Kahawai :)