We have reached the last appointment of the season with Light and Tasty, and I decided to bid farewell to the column with the recipe for wild plum jam that I prepared in recent days. This last recipe of the season (we will resume in September) is a free theme, that is, freely dedicated to summer, so a homemade jam seems perfect to me, don’t you think?
It’s so nice in summer to accumulate colorful jars, filled with the fruits that summer gives us in abundance!
And if these fruits then grow on their own, filling, really filling, the branches of two trees that stand there waiting to be relieved… what could be more beautiful to do than to pick them?

This fantastically good wild plum jam literally absorbed a couple of my days, and not because it’s demanding to make, quite the opposite! But because the discovery of this fruit ignited my curiosity so much that looking for news and information on wild plums, or wild prunes, or little wild plums, or sloe, or… how many names does this fantastic fruit have???, was one of the things I did with great interest these days. And it was a topic of conversation with various people, both live (mom, kids, husband, friends) and online, particularly on the Facebook page and in the group.
In short, I believe I have gathered enough information to pass on to you. 😊

First of all, here are the wild plums we picked:



This is actually just part of the plums we picked from the two plum trees located on my brother’s land, two trees that seem identical at a glance, whose fruits appear the same at first sight (except for some different color shades) but which taste completely different. 😁 One of the trees produces sweet plums, the other produces tart plums. Both varieties are small and round, the tart ones are mostly red (and some yellow and pink), the sweet ones are mostly pink and yellow (but some also red). That’s why we realized they weren’t two identical trees only after tasting them.

My first doubt was: Are they wild plums or are they plums that needed care or treatments they didn’t get (such as pruning, thinning, or things like that)?
This doubt reveals my – indeed our family’s – limited knowledge of plums and fruit tree management in general, but if among you reading this there are any experts, I gladly accept further clarification beyond what I found by relying on Saint Google, where I found images of various wild plums that undoubtedly resemble ours. Additionally, some friends from the group helped, like Francesca who told me that in France these plums are called Mirabelle, and the photos I found further confirmed that our plums are of this variety (or at least one of the two trees should be).

The jam made from these wild plums is fantastically good and different. That is, the two trees produced different jams, of different colors and sweetness.
The tree with sour red fruits gave us a very red jam, almost like cherry jam! While the tree with yellower fruits produces a sweet jam, so much so that it could even be made without sugar. In fact, mine turned out sweet even though I used only 100 grams of sugar per kilo of fruit.
On the other hand, the red plums remain tart. I tried with 100 grams of sugar, then with 200, then 300. I stopped at 300 grams because I don’t usually use a lot of sugar in my jams, but I could have added another 100 (to please my sweet-toothed daughter!, while we like it even if a bit tart).

So dear friends, decide how much sugar to use in your wild plum jam! 😁 My advice is to taste the fruits! Then if they are very tart use no less than 300 grams of sugar per kilo of plums, but if they are sweet try with just 100 grams and you will see what a delicious jam you will get!

Oh, I almost forgot! I made this wild plum jam by cooking it in the microwave, as I am now used to doing for all my jams. Have you ever tried it? It’s a smart way that allows you not to overheat the kitchen! 😉 Try it! 😁

👇 Here you can find more of my jams, all cooked in the microwave 👇