Our fig tree – always very abundant – it exploding!!!   We picked and filled gallon ziplock bags and then straight to the -10 degrees zip freezer.  We picked 12 heavily packed bags in about an hour last night.  We also had the pleasure of meeting our neighbor and sharing some of the figs and plums.  They have honey bees that they raise – the bees help our trees and so we wanted to show our gratitude!   Today we picked another 4 gallon bags in mere minutes.

My sweetie and I do not like sweet pickles or sweet pickle relish, or so we thought until the year I made a batch to give away as gifts.  We discovered that fresh and homemade, just like jam, is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than the store.  Each July/August, we anxiously await the arrival of small, gherkins.

In 2018 we had all our trees pruned and for the first time ever, our plum tree only had 5 total plums!   It was a very sad year….

This year, even with all the late multiple event snowstorms, our tree returned to its usual abundance.  So part 1…..preserving!  From the tree to fresh jam, doesn’t get any fresher or more organically grown that this…..