The Last Plum Story

I promise this is the last of the plum stories. For this year. Do you have one of these really cool contraptions shown above? I don't know it's name. It was passed down to me and I'm thinking it is most likely at least 70 or more years old. I tell you it works like a well oiled machine and last Saturday evening, I processed 12 cups of the most beautiful plum puree you have ever seen.

Emelie was the one who mentioned plum sauce. She motivated me to do it. I was on the verge of letting them all go to waste and yes with huge amounts of guilt at that. She sent me her recipe and I did a little research on the net but in the end, I do what I always do. A little bit of this and a little bit of that and taste and add more of this and some of that and taste. I simply can't follow a recipe.

Sunday morning while making the plum sauce, I just kept thinking about my grandmother who lived to be 96 and spent many an hour picking, cooking, and canning from her garden. I thought about how she surely never would let one plum go to waste. And I thought about how she did all this many years of her life in a home without air conditioning. Heck, when I was just a young one, she didn't even have running water, not to mention other very important modern conveniences. When I finished, I was wiped out. Exhausted. And I only ended up with 8 jars. That sure wouldn't be enough to carry a family through the winter. All of this thinking sure didn't help the guilt I was already heaping on that silver platter that I always carry for such special guilt. I carried the silver platter outside to have another look at all the plums that I was letting go to waste. You know, I needed some kind of affirmation that, "yep, I should feel really really guilty about letting so many plums go to waste".

Here is what I discovered. The plum tree was buzzing with hundred of butterflies, wasp and one great big red headed woodpecker. Sure enough there were many many more plums to be had. All of a sudden, the sliver platter slipped out of my hands and all the guilt just fell right to the ground along with over ripe plums. Sometimes, it is just about the big picture. Made me wonder if my Grandmother left some on the tree for ....................

I bet she did.

♥ Sharon

Workshop starts Friday morning.

I hope to see you there.