How to Make Sand Plum Jelly

Wild Sand Plums & Friends

When it’s a hundred plus degrees outside, in the late summer of Oklahoma, sand plums are best picked with friends. My sweet friend and I didn’t even notice the heat, as we talked about life and picked sand plums, one afternoon in August.

Sand plums known commonly as Chickasaw plum, Cherokee plum, Florida sand plum, sand hill plum, or sand plum, is a North American species of plum-bearing tree. The back corner of The Morgan Farm has a wild sand plum thicket that were ripe for the picking.

Making the Juice

There are two parts to making sand plum jelly. Part one is turning the plums into a juice. You can freeze the juice until your ready to make jelly. Here are the steps:

First, wash the plums with cold water, making sure to cover the plums completely with water. Add them to your pot.

Boil on high temp until plums are soft and the skins pop. The water mixture will turn a red color when they are ready.

Pour into cheese cloth and let cool. I put my cheese cloth over my strainer and put the strainer into a bowl.

Press plum juice through cheese cloth and strain.

Next, measure 5 1/2 cups of juice and bag. If you get to the end and are short on juice you can add a little water to mixture to get you up to 5 1/2 cups. Juice can be frozen until your ready to continue to part two, making the jelly. Each bag is one recipe and yields approximately 6 pints. Do not double this recipe.

Making the Jelly

After doing the math, I found that my batch would yield 25 pints. Good thing I've been saving all those mason jars in my storage. Never throw away a good mason jar.

First, measure out 7 1/2 cups of sugar for the first batch of jelly. Have it ready. Timing is crucial.

Pour one bag of the, previously made, sand plum juice into pot. In a separate bowl, add one package of Sure Jell and about a cup of the juice, whisk together. Add whisked Sure Jell and juice back to the pot. On a medium high heat, bring just to a boil. This smells so good when boing.

As soon as the juice and Sure Jell start boiling, add the premeasured sugar. This is why you should never double this recipe. Moving around and managing 15 pounds of sugar, is no easy task. Keep it manageable with the 7 1/2 cups of sugar per batch.

Stirring slowly, to breakdown sugar, over a medium high heat. This part is a tricky. Don't over stir, or you will end up with an unusable, apple sauce looking, batch. Just keep the liquid moving. Bring to a roaring boil for one minute exactly. Now were making jelly!

Remove pot from heat. Using a canning funnel, pour liquid into jars. Let jelly settle and cool for at least a minute.

Remove excess foam from the top with a small spoon seal with lids. Once jelly is inside the jars cool them at room temp. slowly.

There you have it, one batch of wild sand plum jelly. I canned my jelly, using the water bath canning method. Please see the post about canning for directions.

The Queen Bee says, "Sand Plum Jelly is best made with friends."

The Recipe

Ingredients:

• 5 1/2 c Plum Juice
• 7 1/2 c Sugar
• 1 Box of Fruit Pectin (Sure Jell)

Instructions:

To prepare plum juice:

Wash plums, cover with cold water and boil until plums are soft and the skins pop. Press through cheese cloth and measure.

To prepare jelly:

Mix plum juice with pectin and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add sugar, continue to stir and boil hard for one minute.

Pour into sterile jars. Let set for one minute and skim the top. Seal with lids.

Let the jelly cool slowly in jars.

yields 6 pints