Part of homesteading is preserving the harvest that I have, or that others might give me. As I said in my last post, two bags of plums have started off my bottling for 2008!

Since my children aren’t keen on stewed plums or plum jam, I thought I would give cordial a go. I tried this recipe many years ago, and it was quite nice, so I thought I’d try it again. It is a recipe from one of the old copies of Above Rubies.

Plum Cordial

Day 1

Dissolve 70g tartaric acid in 4 cups of cold water. Pour over 2.2kg of plums and leave for 24 hours. Strain. Add 3 cups of sugar to each 2 cups of juice. Stir to dissolve and bottle. Keeps for years.

Day 2

Dissolve 56g tartaric acid in 4 cups of cold water. Pour over the same fruit and leave for 24 hours. Strain and add 2 1/2 cups of sugar to each 2 cups of juice. Stir to dissolve and bottle. Keeps 6 months.

Day 3

Dissolve 28g tartaric acid in 4 cups BOILING water. Pour over the same fruit and leave for 24 hours. Strain and add 2 1/2 cups of sugar to each 2 cups of juice. Dissolve and bottle. Keeps 3 months.

To make up: Pour approx 1 inch of cordial in glass and top up with water.

(Above Rubies September 1991 No. 37)

Now the first time I made this, I had no idea what it meant to “bottle”! I just put it in plastic bottles and had my dh freaking out that it would ferment and I would make my 2 year old tipsy! This time I heated the juice and sugar up till it was almost boiling, poured the syrup in hot, sterilized bottles, and put on the lids tightly. You know the bottles have sealed well when you are drinking a cup of tea and you hear… “pop”…. “pop”….!

I took a few photos…. here is some of the fruit I started with sitting in the sink being washed and the yukky bits being cut out:

This is what they looked like after they were subjected to three days of tartaric acid and water, poor things:

And finally, the finished product:

Beautiful bottles all in a row… The bottles on the left are from Day One, the ones on the right placemat are from Day Two. I haven’t taken a photo of the Day Three ones yet. I doubled the recipe, since I had so many plums, and I got lots of bottles of cordial. I must count them. I also have to label them before they get mixed up!

There is something so rewarding to see all those bottles……. it is worth the squished plums under my shoes, the sticky spots on the stove, cupboard, bench top and floor…. the burnt fingers (and tongue from too much taste testing), the yelling at children “No, you CAN’T help me right now - get out of the kitchen before you get red sticky stuff all over you too!” - oh, and not to mention the purple candle falling INTO the pan of plum juice and splashing red spots all over the kitchen wall……… Yes, it is worth it! And it is yummy. I know, because I tried it!