We have five different types of plums in our orchard and I've experimented with many, many ways to preserve them. Canning plums whole or halved in light syrup is our favorite method. My family loves that the preserved fruit is tasty - and I love that this method has easy and quick prep, plus a relatively short processing time! 

Some people will ask: How do you use your home canned plums? Most often, my family eats them as a snack or a side, just like you might eat canned peaches. But you can also use home canned plums for baking - or even in fruit salad.

What Type of Plums Are Best for Canning?

Not all plums can well. For example, our sweet and juicy yellow plums get mushy when canned - still usable for pie/cobbler/crisp, but not a great end product. Instead, look for a plum with firm, less watery meat. If you've never canned a certain variety of plum before, my recommendation is to try canning just a single jar, to test how they turn out. 

To Pit or Not to Pit?

If your plums are "freestone" - by which I mean the pit comes out easily when the plum is cut in half - I recommend removing that pit and canning your plums as halves. If the plums do not have a pit that removes easily, you have two choices: You can try removing the pit with an apple corer (like this one). then canning them as halves, or you could can the plums whole. I've done the latter with wild plums that are a little larger than cherries; it works really well! (To use whole, canned plums, I cut them in half after opening the jar, so I can remove the pits.)

How to EASILY Can Plums

from The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving 

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Ingredients:

Fresh plums

Organic granulated sugar

Water

1. Create an ultra-light syrup by combining 1 1/4 cups of organic granulated sugar and 5 1/2 cups of water in a large saucepan. Place the saucepan on the stove and place it over medium heat. Stir until the sugar completely dissolves, then bring the syrup to a simmer. (If you prefer to have a more sugary syrup, use The National Center for Home Food Preservation's syrup chart, or the syrup chart in any modern Ball/Bernardin canning book.)

2. Wash the plums, and if canning halves, cut in half and remove the pits. If canning whole, prick the plums with a fork in 3 - 4 places; this prevents the fruit from bursting when heated. (NOTE: Plums do not require peeling before canning.)

Pitting "freestone" plums.

3. Working one jar at a time, pack a hot canning jar with the prepared plums (placing them cavity side down, if canning halves). Don't be afraid to pack the plums tightly. Leave 1/2 inch headspace.

4. Ladle hot syrup over the plums, retaining 1/2 inch headspace.

Packing plums into jars.

5. Bubble the jar and wipe the rim clean. Place a lid and ring on the jar and put the jar in a water bath canner filled with nearly-simmering water. Move on to the next jar, filling it with fruit and syrup, bubbling, putting the lid on, and placing the jar in the canner. Continue until all the plums are used or the canner is full. 

NOTE: If you don't quite have enough plums to completely fill your last jar, it's safe to simply top the jar off with syrup until you have 1/2 inch headspace.

6. Process pint jars for 20 minutes and quart jars for 25 minutes in a water bath canner.***

*** Learn how to adjust for your altitude here.  

Home canned plums.

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