Sandplums

Anita of Prairie Dreams mentioned that her grandma used to make sandplum jam all the time, but I can't seem to find that post at the moment. I wanted to take a break from my OR - CA post to share pictures that I took April 18 this year. Below is a shot of the sandplum thicket in my backyard...
Many years ago my neighbor/friend and I decided that we wanted to make some homegrown jam. I had picked sandplums with my ex's grandmother as a newlywed so had a brief encounter with the thickets in the wild. My friend and I found out that there was a large thicket on the property of a mutual friend that lived on the river in the country north of us. We asked and were given permission to pick all the sandplums that we desired. She and I spent an afternoon filling plastic buckets with nice, ripe, juicy sandplums. For those of you that are not familiar with sandplums, it appears that technically they are called Sand Hill plums.
One thing unique about sandplums is that they are a natural for jelly making. By that I mean, the only thing you need to add to make a marvelous jelly is sugar. A lot of juices require pectin to properly thicken, but sandplums have enough naturally. Here's one woman's recipe for wild sand plum jelly. My friend and I cleaned and cooked and set up jelly in every jelly jar, large and small, we could get our hands on...
...and everyone we knew wanted some. The kids ate all we had in no time flat. Mention sandplum jelly/jam to native Kansans and you will see people perk up and pay attention, if not flat out start to drool. After all our work, the peels and pits were tossed in the compost bin in my back yard and not thought about till around three years later when bushes began sprouting. This is how I came by having a sandplum thicket in my back yard. Maybe this year I'll have enough sandplums to make some jelly.