Plums, beautifully complex plums!

I'd never really had a plum before a few years ago, when I took some from a stranger. Literally. Scot and I were out in the side yard doing some landscaping, when a man pulled up to the sidewalk in his pickup. He said, "Hey. You like plums?" and swung a plastic grocery sack of fruit out his open window.

Scot and I looked at each other like, "Whuuuuuaaa?" We walked up to the pickup, and started talking to the guy. Turns out, he used to live in our house in the 70's! He used to mow lawns in the neighborhood for extra money. Even after moving away he continued to do this, and one older lady that lives down the side street remained a customer. She likes plums, and he had brought some along that day. She wasn't home, however, and he didn't want to leave them in case she didn't return soon.

I took those plums and made my first batch of plum jam. Turns out, I LOVE PLUMS. The next year, we found ourselves at Camp Adair during mid-summer, and picked plums from a grove of trees there. Soon after, we put in our little dwarf orchard in the side yard, including two plum trees. Yesterday we picked six pounds off the small tree.

The fruit are the most beautiful color. The taste is an amazing sweet, juicy flesh with a sharp snap to the tart skin. Nature's Sweet Tart! So good!

These were halved, pitted, and tossed into the crock pot. They are well underway to making Slow Cooker Plum Butter. OMGCAN'TWAITTOEATIT.