We are spending a lovely holiday weekend at the beach on Long Island. The weather is perfect with bright sun and light, warm breezes. We decide to take an early morning walk with a foraging prey in mind: beach plums.
Early September is beach plum season here and we hope to beat the birds and deer to the fruit. Walking by the bushes that are plentiful, we notice that the taller, larger plants are picked fairly clean while those those tiny in size, close to the sand, have a good number of these fruits.
“For every one you pick, leave one for the birds and one for the animals,” admonishes Juana to me as I grab the plums with my increasingly stained fingers. I am somewhat indifferent to her advise as neither the birds nor the deer leave any vegetables or fruits for me when given the chance. But I am somewhat mindful as I reach for perfectly ripe berries, leaving the withered and lightly colored ones for others to consume.
Once our bags are full, we make our way back to Cherry Grove and the kitchen of Rosana. We brought a quart of blackberries to mix with the beach plums for jam.
The biggest challenge in making beach plum jam (besides finding enough beach plums) is pitting them. The plums are the size of cherries with a similarly sized pit. Boiling the plums for a bit, they soften, making the pitting easier though fairly messy.
Mixing them with the blackberries, we get a tart, pungent crimson sheen. Adding sugar, boiling it down a bit, it is ready to can.
And now to taste! Yum. 😋😋😋
