Having a plum tree of this size is honestly both a blessing and a curse. That is, we were blessed with the delicious fruit when summer came, but cursed with the guilt of letting the rest rot after harvesting too many to handle. Like last year, I took the challenge head on this year and made plum sorbet, plum smoothies, plum frozen yogurt, and plum cake for everyone I knew. I’m sick of plums for now, but I’m excited about getting even more creative with plums next year.
The plum tree is the only thing living in my backyard. It’s as if the tree sucked up all the water that was available in the backyard, and left everything else to shrivel up and die. I started renting this house a few months ago, and so far, everything has been great, but the backyard is truly an eyesore. Mike mowed the waist-high, yellow lawn when we first moved in, but that was just about the last time – it’s dead now. The backyard has given up, and so have we. The underground metropolis the gophers are constructing isn’t doing much for it either.
But pushing all those complaints aside, we do have the biggest, most amazing plum tree. It feels like one day I saw shy, tiny green fruit peeking through the dense leaves, the next day, the tree was heavy with bright red fruit. For about three weeks I was a plum eating-cooking-canning-pie making maniac. Whenever I heard plums dropping to the ground, in my mind I would panic and think, “Quick! Get these plums to someone!”
I found that the easiest way to use these plums was to make a compote (similar to a jam. I used “jam” in the blog title because the word “compote” sounds uppity to me). The reason for this is because the tree hasn’t been pruned in ages, so the plums are about the size of a cherry, and the pit is as large as a cherry pit, too. They were delicious, but unfortunately most of it was skin and pit. Turning the plums into a compote solved this problem, as I used it as a base for several applications – a pie, clobber, smoothie, spread and frozen yogurt topping.
P.S. These photos are really old – plum season is well over. What a relief. I forgot to blog this one! Better late than, never, right?
Whoever remodeled this house did a terrible job. The house we are renting was built in the 20s, and I’m guessing it was probably remodeled in the 70s or 80s. The original parts of the house look great, but the parts that were patched up were…well, patched up. As in, “let’s nail this cupboard door with one nail instead of two”, or “if we paint just the surfaces of everything, we can save double the paint”. The shortcuts are everywhere, and not only do they show, but they become painfully obvious with use (like the drawer that falls out because the wheels are gone). After the owner sold the house, it became a rental property, which didn’t make things any better.
So now we move into this old house, which overall, is in ok condition, but there are parts of it that are truly an eyesore to look at. Namely, the nook in the our entryway, and the gazebo in the backyard (this is a whole other post coming later this year). Our landlord is kind enough to let us make changes to the house, as well as pay for the materials, so long as he approves of it. So first thing first: the nook with the disgusting wormwood paneling.
And I mean disgusting. If you haven’t seen wormwood before, you’re not missing much. The first time I set eyes on it, I wanted to immediately jump into the shower. Wormwood is exactly what it sounds like, which is wood that has been chewed on by termites or something of the like.
The original parts of the house look great, but the parts that were patched up were…well, patched up. As in, “Let’s nail this cupboard door with one nail instead of two”, or “If we paint just the surfaces of everything, we can save double the paint”.
What’s fascinating is that my next door neighbor told us that the previous owner chose to cover up the original white paneling (photos below) with wormwood. Now, I’m dying to know why the previous owner decided to refinish the nook area with wormwood over all the other materials that were available, because 1) wormwood has no particular use and 2) I highly doubt this was a recommended material for house interiors – it belongs outside, if anything.
Well anyway, here are photos of what we did with $40 and the ugly nook in the entryway. The credit goes to Mike, who did all the real work. He actually started working on it at midnight one night because we just couldn’t take the ugliness anymore.
