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Homemade Plum Chutney Recipe

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Plum chutney can be made with plums or damsons and it’s a good way of using up damaged or misshapen sweet plums. If a plum is bruised, we still put it all in – it makes no difference once it’s cooked.

Stoning the Plums:
The easy way to do this is to simmer them in a covered pot with some vinegar at the bottom for about 20 minutes, then leave them overnight. Use some of the white wine vinegar from the ingredients list for this and remember to subtract the amount of vinegar used to help stone the plums from the amount that you add to the cooking pot.

Ingredients:

Note: all the main ingredients should be chopped fine, but some people prefer their apricot & raisins to be a bit chunky.

  • 1350g of plums or damsons with the stones removed.
  • 450g of cored apples. Ideally use cooking apples or cooking crabapples. If you can only get eating apples, the more tart, acidic tasting ones are best.
  • 450g onions.
  • 300g dried apricots.
  • 200g raisins.
  • 220g-450g of sugar. Brown sugar is best. Use less sugar for sweet plums, more for damsons or really tart cooking plums and somewhere in the middle if it’s a mixture.
  • 2 cloves of garlic.
  • 750 ml of white wine vinegar.

    • Spices & Seasoning:

  • Half tsp of cayenne pepper
  • 1 hot chilli
  • 2 tsp of salt
  • 1 tsp of allspice powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 2 tsp of balsamic vinegar
  • 5 juniper berries
  • 10 black peppercorns

    • Now for the fun bit – just dump all the spices & seasoning into the vinegar, stir and then pour it over all the ingredients in a pot or saucepan for slow cooking and give it a another good stir.
    Next,
    bring it to the boil and then immediately turn the heat right down so that the mixture is barely simmering. Leave it for about 5 hours, stirring occasionally. When it is ready, it will be thick enough so that when you stir it, you will leave a little valley in your trail.
    Pour it into sterilised jars for storage in a cool place or the fridge. Chutneys are at their best when they have been left to settle for a couple of weeks.

    Brutting Your Hazel Trees to Get More Nuts!

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    Brutting is a really simple technique to make your hazel or cobnut trees produce more nuts. It is done in August.

    All you do is snap (but don’t break off) the ends of all the new shoots that were made this year. Count up to six or seven leaves on the new shoot from where it comes out of the older wood and snap the shoot there. This will stop the tree trying to make a new shoot and force the bit below the snap to make more flowers, which will turn into more nuts next year. That’s it!

    You can do this on any type of hazel, cobnut or purple hazel.

    Water your new plants.

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    Everything planted during the last 2 winters will need watering!

    It looks like we are having a dry start to the year, so your plants really need you to water them regularly.

    Remember that light rain showers in this warm, sunny weather won’t really water the ground well. Only heavy rainfall counts as a free watering.

    Water Butts: Get the most from them in dry weather

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    This is quick tip for people who love saving water:

    Make the most of the water your butts collect from roof gutters in periods of low rainfall

    In warm weather, light, patchy rain will not get deep enough into the soil to water your plants effectively.
    But it will be filling up your water butt.

    So, water your plants from the butt while it is raining and your butt is filling up.

    This way, when the mild rain stops, your plants will be thoroughly watered and your water butt should be full, because you were using water that was otherwise going to overflow from the butt.