I have the option of obtaining three or four bushels of Yellow Plums. The
pits are hard to remove. Any suggestions?
Thanks for any advice.

Andie Z

"Andie Z" > wrote in message
news:TfCnk.641$T91.278@trnddc04...
>I have the option of obtaining three or four bushels of Yellow Plums. The
>pits are hard to remove. Any suggestions?
> Thanks for any advice.


My only plum wine was a small, one-gallon batch so I pitted the plums by
hand with a small knife. I sure wouldn't want to do several bushels that
way. A few ideas spring to mind:

1. Pound them. Put some of the plums into a tub, wrap the end of a section
of 4x4 lumber in plastic bags, and pound the plums to pulp. Remove the pits
by hand.

2. Boil them. Maybe boiling would break them down and the pits would fall to
the bottom of the pot.

3. Freeze them. I freeze pears for making wine; when they thaw, they very
soft and mushy. Maybe that would work with plums, too. When you put the
plums into the primary with water, stir and the pits drop to the bottom.

4. Shred them. Drop them through a garden chipper-shredder. Use a
large-holed grate so that the pits get expelled, not chipped up.

Hopefully somebody else will have an easier method than my suggestions.

Paul

On Aug 11, 5:23*am, "Pavel314" > wrote:
> "Andie Z" > wrote in message
>
> news:TfCnk.641$T91.278@trnddc04...
>
> >I have the option of obtaining three or four bushels of Yellow Plums. *The
> >pits are hard to remove. *Any suggestions?
> > Thanks for any advice.
>
> My only plum wine was a small, one-gallon batch so I pitted the plums by
> hand with a small knife. I sure wouldn't want to do several bushels that
> way. A few ideas spring to mind:
>
> 1. Pound them. Put some of the plums into a tub, wrap the end of a section
> of 4x4 lumber in plastic bags, and pound the plums to pulp. Remove the pits
> by hand.

I did that last year. not fun

> 2. Boil them. Maybe boiling would break them down and the pits would fall to
> the bottom of the pot.

nope, plums have the same density, tried and failed

> 3. Freeze them. I freeze pears for making wine; when they thaw, they very
> soft and mushy. Maybe that would work with plums, too. When you put the
> plums into the primary with water, stir and the pits drop to the bottom.

plums pits dont float, and they barely sink

> 4. Shred them. Drop them through a garden chipper-shredder. Use a
> large-holed grate so that the pits get expelled, not chipped up.

Tried a meat grinder with the screen missing. the auger still broke
the pits.

my advice? freeze them then run them thru a wine press, or (if) you
get some stainless steel screen and line the bottom of a 5 gallon pail
to make your own press. this year my plums are taking forever to
ripen, so I dont know if that will work yet. maybe next year i can
give better insight

I know this question was about a specific variety of plum, but for future
reference note that most types of stone fruits, including plums, have some
varieties that are so-called "clingstone" and other varieties that are
"freestone." These mean what they sound like: in clingstone varieties, the
fruit clings to the pit like a demon. Obviously the plums discussed in this
thread so far have all been clingstone varieties. In freestone varieties,
the fruit adheres little or not at all to the pit. So for future stone fruit
winemaking opportunities, you could consider getting a freestone variety.
With these you can simply slice them in half around the pit and the pit will
either fall right out on its own or pull out cleanly with almost no effort.
A common freestone plum variety is the Italian plum (sometimes called
Italian prune), a European plum variety. Many (all?) European plum varieties
are freestone. They are also much sweeter than Japanese plums (a plus for
winemaking), but smaller and less juicy (not necessarily a minus, because
the flavor intensity of the Japanese plums is much diluted by their extreme
wateriness compared to European).

The big fat flavorless juicy plums you commonly find in most grocery stores
are Japanese plum varieties. European plums do not ship well and so are much
less common in stores, but they are (IMNSHO) much better tasting. You might
find them at a farmer's market if you have one nearby. Or, if you have room,
you could consider putting a plum tree in your yard if you have one and
don't live in a desert -- there are European plum varieties that are suited
to quite a wide range of climates, including places like Minnesota and
Finland. (Japanese varieties are less cold hardy.) A semi-dwarf tree (the
most common size sold in most retail nurseries) will grow to only 12-15'
tall without pruning (you can keep it even smaller by pruning if you want)
and requires only a ten-foot circle to grow in (full sun, please). When
mature it will produce more plums than you know what to do with -- other
than making wine out of them, of course ;-). Because of their high sugar
content, European plums can also be dried to make prunes. This is why you
will find European plum varieties referred to randomly as both plums and
prunes. Japanese plums do not have enough sugar to make prunes out of and
would just rot instead.

If you plant your own tree, the ones that come about 7' tall from the
nursery are three years old already. The first summer you might get a small
number of plums (zero to a couple dozen). The second summer you will get a
lot more. It will probably be the third summer before they are really
producing in earnest. (But home winemakers are already well-endowed with
patience, are they not?)

Utopia in Decay
http://home.comcast.net/~kevin.cherkauer/site

Kevin Cherkauer


"Tater" > wrote in message
...
On Aug 11, 5:23 am, "Pavel314" > wrote:
> "Andie Z" > wrote in message
>
> news:TfCnk.641$T91.278@trnddc04...
>
> >I have the option of obtaining three or four bushels of Yellow Plums. The
> >pits are hard to remove. Any suggestions?
> > Thanks for any advice.
>
> My only plum wine was a small, one-gallon batch so I pitted the plums by
> hand with a small knife. I sure wouldn't want to do several bushels that
> way. A few ideas spring to mind:
>
> 1. Pound them. Put some of the plums into a tub, wrap the end of a section
> of 4x4 lumber in plastic bags, and pound the plums to pulp. Remove the
pits
> by hand.

I did that last year. not fun

> 2. Boil them. Maybe boiling would break them down and the pits would fall
to
> the bottom of the pot.

nope, plums have the same density, tried and failed

> 3. Freeze them. I freeze pears for making wine; when they thaw, they very
> soft and mushy. Maybe that would work with plums, too. When you put the
> plums into the primary with water, stir and the pits drop to the bottom.

plums pits dont float, and they barely sink

> 4. Shred them. Drop them through a garden chipper-shredder. Use a
> large-holed grate so that the pits get expelled, not chipped up.

Tried a meat grinder with the screen missing. the auger still broke
the pits.

my advice? freeze them then run them thru a wine press, or (if) you
get some stainless steel screen and line the bottom of a 5 gallon pail
to make your own press. this year my plums are taking forever to
ripen, so I dont know if that will work yet. maybe next year i can
give better insight

On Aug 22, 8:58*pm, "Kevin Cherkauer" > wrote:
> I know this question was about a specific variety of plum, but for future
> reference note that most types of stone fruits, including plums, have some
> varieties that are so-called "clingstone" and other varieties that are
> "freestone." These mean what they sound like: in clingstone varieties, the
> fruit clings to the pit like a demon. Obviously the plums discussed in this
> thread so far have all been clingstone varieties. In freestone varieties,
> the fruit adheres little or not at all to the pit. So for future stone fruit
> winemaking opportunities, you could consider getting a freestone variety.
> With these you can simply slice them in half around the pit and the pit will
> either fall right out on its own or pull out cleanly with almost no effort.