Jammin' at the Pedal the Plains

Pedal the Plains is a 3 day grand tour of the Plains totaling 168 miles.  Bike riders start in Yuma to Wray, Wray to Burlington, and ending Burlington to Yuma.  The boys and I waved big waves as they made their way by our house.  At each town they stop off there is food, music, and general celebration (and perhaps an economical boost). 

We headed down south to Burlington to meet Granny and Pa.  Pa's band Highway 385 would be playing.  Tyler enjoyed the continuous sugar high from cupcakes and Travis wanted to explore all the buildings in Old Town.  Antiques and baby do not make good combination.  The petting zoo delighted Tyler and fascinated/freaked out Travis.   It truly was a great time and maybe? a yearly event.  I think next time I would like to check out the beer garden.  

Tyler and Granny checking out all the buildings.  Tyler's favorite was the jail....hmm...

Travis was enchanted by this little girl.  

Pa warming up

Highway 385 band

We don't see this everyday going by our house

Leaves on Fire

Everyone has a favorite time of the year, for me it is Autumn.  Leaves burning bright and a respite from the Summer's heat refreshes my outlook on life.  The cooler weather also brings boots, scarves, jeans, and flannel out of the closet and this makes me happy, almost giddy.  During the long Summer months the kids and I would be trapped inside from mid-morning to close to sunset.  Now we can explore anytime of the day.

The native plums leaves turn every fall color imaginable.  Tyler loves to pick everything and anything that comes from trees and bushes.  So we decided to gather leaves.  Travis was more determined to find all things edible.  I helped him find 3 plums, no pit this time.  I wonder what my explorers see through their 3 and 1 year old eyes. I am sure it would be a fascinating perspective.

Autumn is also a time to reap the harvest.  There are pears, plums, grapes, and raspberries to indulge in, and we do!! I wish this time of year was not so fleeting, but we will savor every moment, especially carmel Apple Pops (also makes me giddy).

native plum harvest and misadventures in jam making

When the plums turn I know Summer in on it's decline and fall is near.  This year is the exception Summer is still in full swing and every edible fruit is early.  This is due to the record breaking heat and drought.  Our plum thickets are on drip line so they do not have to worry about the lack of water so they produced massive amounts of fruit.  Every year depending if I have an infant (they seem to take up my spare time) I try to make plum jam.  Two years ago the raspberries and plums were ready at the same time.  Oh it was sooooooo good, sweet and tart and perfection in every bite.  Well, my raspberries are still white, so plain old plum jam it is.

We invited our neighbors Aidan and his lovely momma Stacey to help pick plums.  Tyler loves to pick anything edible.  To his mother's exasperation he is bound and determined to pick every unripe pear on the pear tree and peach off the peach tree.  So now that something is actually ripe he and his momma are very excited.  We also love that that we can share this harvest with special friends.

Travis wonders how many plums he can sneak while I take pictures

Travis only managed to swallow one pit.  Which I deem as a success considering how many he went after.  Now I am just waiting and watching for native plum leaves to poke out of his ears.  

Feeding the fish is FUN!

Fish hitting the surface

 Now time to process.  I really really wanted to use my victorio food strainer to prepare the fruit.  I will never, never use that machine for native plums.  From years past to make the jam only takes 2 or 3 hours.  This time it took 5 or 6 hours.  Partly from me ignoring directions and the plum's skins are to numerous and tough.  I foolishly left the pits in the first time and it jammed.  It takes at least 15 to 20 minutes to unjam the darn thing.  The strainer jammed 3 times and my I was done.  Oh the curses came and they came continuously and fluently.  By the time I had 6 and 2/3 cup i was 4 and 1/2 hours into my project. Oh the humanity!

Jam time!  I like to use the low pectin when I jam.  The flavors of sweet and tart set the fruit off perfectly.  Ball also has a great website for measurements and recipes http://www.freshpreserving.com/tools/reference/pectin.aspx .  The recipe is for 8 jelly jars, I only had pint jars so I received 4 jars for all my labor.  Disappointing but I learned many lessons from this plum season.

Wash the pretty plums

heat up plums so seeds are easier to pop out

Never use this to process plums from plum thicket.  I usually use a food processor and will from now on.  

A mess, I won't even show you the state of my sink.  

Follow the recipe and make your jam

All done!