Kitties and Wild Plums

Wild plums. The variety we found are about 1 inch in diameter and sour in taste with a big pit in the middle. I was proud to identify them on our hike, sans wild edible plants guide--an achievement which went a long way towards earning the admiration of my boyfriend. The fact is, however, that I was only able to do so after virtually memorizing Cattail Bob Seebeck's book, Best-Tasting Wild Plants of Colorado and the Rockies (1998).

After the "Ooo! Wild plums!" moment, we tasted one there on the spot, photographed the tree, collected a few, and then confirmed our identification in the book (back at the car) before eating a few more. "Toothed-leaves" was a helpful description. The plums have an astringent quality to them, so we are thinking they need to ripen a bit more--although that does open the door to the aforementioned appropriation by this wild-plum-eating cat.

For more information on wild plums, check out Bill Weekes' article, "Picking and preserving the wild plum," at the Backwoods Home Magazine website. I am particularly fond of his use of the term "mushified" to describe when it's time to cool the plum residue in the process of jelly-making.

I also enjoyed SusanV's description at FatFree Vegan Kitchen of how she made wild plum sauce, a recipe for which I doubt I have enough plums this time around but hope to try as soon as the opportunity presents itself. This Phoo-D entry is also a good one--an amusing story on the one hand and a tasty-looking recipe for making a wild plum tart on the other.