Preserving Plums

Momma Kay's neighbor (and my friend) Jackie has a "pluot" tree in her front yard.  And they don't eat plums!  Their loss, my gain.  (By the way, they also have two apple trees and have given me apples too the last couple of years.  Their tree makes the most delicious applesauce.)

Last week when we were in Provo Elliott got up on a ladder and picked a bushel of plums for us to take home.  I helped by talking on the front porch with Jackie the whole time and offering (halfheartedly) to hold the ladder.  But now that I have them, I guess I need to do something with them, right?

I had planned all along to try a recipe from An Orgeon Cottage for Spicy Plum Sauce.  But as I faced down the box of plums I decided to start digging for some other plum inspiration on Pinterest (see, I actually use Pinterest and don't just spend hours on it in vain).  So today I processed the plums into:

* 6 pints and 9 half pints of Spicy Plum Sauce (though I didn't make it spicy)
* 5 half pints of Chinese Plum Sauce (different spices than the other Plum Sauce and this time I did make it spicy)
* 5 pints of Plums in Honey (5 with vanilla beans and 1 with a rosemary sprig)
* 4 quarts of simple canned plums in syrup

I hope to use the non-spicy Plum Sauce as a ketchup replacement for the girls, as a marinade, and as a stir-fry sauce.  But I can't wait to try all of this - and to share some with Jackie!