How to make plum jam that quickly disappears

My husband, A, decided to make plum jam on Sunday. I wholeheartedly supported him with words of encouragement and appreciation whenever my mouth wasn't full of delicious plums and jam. Thank you, A.

This is a guest post from the chef himself (with some comments under the pictures from me) - a beginner's guide to making plum jam.

Enjoy. I'm off to lick up some more...

Step 1: Get some plums - preferably sweet and preferably free

Lie in your hammock and wait for plums to appear in June

Stare at the plums and wait for them to ripen

Pluck when the plums are red, not green or yellow. It's fine if they are hard 

Announce a round of family plum picking and enlist resourceful members (Can you see A, who scampered up the tree? My dad is helping him)

Create a family event and get little hands to pick fallen plums

Step 2: Wait - for kids to be asleep, plums to ripen [if not quite sweet per step 1], and spouses to give you a day to just get it done

Wait

Choose

Taste to test

Step 3: Pit the plums - do it alone or enlist one father-in-law to make an assembly line of it. Expect to get your hands squishy, plummy, and quite wet.

Step 4: Boil the plums - with a hint of water added; also separately boil the pits; when done boiling the pits, strain the juice into the plum boil.

Step 5: Hand puree the plums as they boil to get a reasonably even consistency and eliminate big chunks of fruit

Step 6: Walk out to your garden and pluck a lemon from the lemon tree

Step 7: Squeeze fresh lemon juice from your lemon from your lemon tree into the boiling plum mixture.

Step 8: Add cinnamon and sugar to taste - if in doubt, add a lot. This is jam or preserve - sweet is good.

Step 9: Cut an apple [preferably from tree in your garden] and drop the chunks into the boiling plum mixture. Natural pectin (thanks KJ)

Step 10: Keep boiling till everything comes to an even boil, tastes sweet and reasonably thick. Typically about 15 minutes or more. If the jar boils over, let it [the cooled jammy mixture is yummy to taste!]. If the foam bothers you as this mixture boils, add some butter and the foam vanishes.

Boil

Step 11: Pour this hot mixture into sterilized mason jars / cans and follow instructions to seal and store.

Sterilized

Delicious

Side profile is just as gorgeous

Step 12: For any jar filled, you can either give it to someone, eat it yourself, or give it to your kids to gobble up. [Half a pint per meal seems to be the going rate with our kids]

To get some sterilized mason jars/cans, boil the germs out of them for at least 10 minutes. Cool them down without touching them by hand.
[If you cannot do this, then be prepared to eat all the plum jam you can in one sitting.] 

The plum jam is so delicious, I doubt there will be any by the time you read this and demand some. Just like that, poof! Going, going...almost gone

When life gives you a lemon tree

We have a lemon tree in our new home.

With lemons waiting to be picked everyday 

And we bought a new wind wheel right beside it because we love wind wheels. Now we all sit and stare at it and exclaim, "oh the wind's blowing from that way!" ( as though it matters at all) every time it spins. 

Check out the lemons from the garden: 

Yes, the tomatoes are from our garden too: heirloom and grape tomatoes, juicy and sweet

Oh and there are some string beans and mint and thyme too, I kept the beans away to cook tomorrow. Yum!!! The mint and thyme need some TLC, which I've started giving, starting today. 

I'm going to be baking lots of apple pie soon, when these turn golden yellow:

If I get to them before the squirrels do

We also have cherry and peach trees but no fruits right now. The hummingbirds, sparrows and several local birds visit our garden multiple times, everyday. 

The  garden has flowers too, mostly hibiscus 

Apparently this one's also hibiscus:

If you look closely at it, it does look like one

Updated: My loving, intelligent sister A did some digging (no pun intended) and found that this purple flower is called Rose of Sharon.

There is another plant in the backyard that blooms a peachish-orange hibiscus but I plucked a flower this morning for the prayer/ shrine area in my kitchen (which I think would be a bit impolite to take photos of- culturally ingrained in me from several temple visits) so I don't have a pic right now.

Updated with a picture:

Any guesses to what this one's called? Wish Google had an app for that :

And this one?

Updated:
My sister A, who is turning out to be a proper sleuth, found that these white flowers with crinkly leaves are geraniums. The name reminds me of potted plants sitting by the kitchen window sill. I wonder who gets to name these flowers?

So pretty, right? As someone who dislikes artificial flowers and married to someone who dislikes plastic flowers, having the real thing right at home is the real deal indeed. 

This is what we see when we enter and leave our beautiful, ridiculously old and beat up but tremendously joyful home in the Bay Area. There's something about rustic charm in this garden that calms my senses, makes me happy and makes me wonder...

...how the heck are we going to maintain this beautiful garden when California is in the middle of a massive drought?!!!!! 

This garden reminds me so so much of my childhood home in Madras, that A and I plan to quickly acquire pairs of green thumbs and take care of all these lovelies. As a reminder of my amamma's home, I want to plant curry leaves and coriander soon. Of course, planting coconut will be the best but that might be a bit much. Besides, since it might be challenging to find legit coconut climbers in the area and I don't want coconuts falling on my head, I shall postpone this decision. 

We shall figure this gardening thing out. All in good time. Hopefully motherhood has given me some mad skills to take care of all my new babies. 

Come, visit me. I'll cook you something from my garden.