Plums Four Ways

A lady in my mom's ward passed away earlier this year, but her family still owns her house. She has a big plum tree and they told my mom people could go pick whatever plums they wanted. Beki, Kylee, and I went over and picked a bunch of plums.

We had way too many plums to eat, so I decided to get adventurous. I borrowed a dehydrator and dehydrated some plums. I also made some plum baby food (which Tyler loves mixed with some pears!) and I tried my luck at homemade jam! I had never canned before, so I was a bit nervous, but I jumped right in and did it. I was a little frazzled, because I didn't know what I was doing and there seemed to be a lot of steps to do at once. On top of cooking down the jam and prepping the jars, I was hanging out with Tyler, who did really well but started getting upset right toward the end - right when it was time for me to fill the jars! I decided next time I would have to make the jam when he was down for a nap, or at least when Matt was home. I also got a little sad when, after filling the jars, I started to hear the lids popping. I was thinking that was them unsealing instead of sealing. Silly me. I forgot that the "popping" sound was actually the jars sealing! Every one of them ended up sealing properly, and I couldn't have been happier with how the jam turned out. It was quite tasty if I do say so myself. Think I might make another trip out to the plum tree and make a second batch!