Not every gardener can boast of a rich harvest of plums, but if it turned out to be great, it is necessary to correctly collect the berries and prepare them for storage. Good quality of plums is a guarantee of their long-term preservation.
Plum fruits, as a rule, do not ripen at the same time, so they must be harvested in three to four steps. Remove ripe berries carefully, try not to damage their skin. Use gloves to preserve the wax film and a knife, scissors, or pruning shears. Cut off the stemmed plums and place them in a special container. Do not pick the fruit immediately after rain, let it dry a little. Plum varieties such as Vengerka Azhanskaya, Vengerka ordinary and Timiryazev's Memory are stored for a short period of time - two to four weeks.
Arrange the berries in three rows and store in a cool place. For the first three weeks try to keep the air temperature around 0 ° C, then the temperature should be increased by several degrees. If you store plums for a long time at a temperature of 0 ° C, their flesh will turn brown. The air humidity should be about 85%, with lower humidity the fruits can wither and deteriorate. You can also store the fruits in plastic bags, then the temperature should not exceed 0 ° C.
A longer way to store plums is to dry them. But not all varieties are suitable for this, Hungarians are suitable for these purposes. Sort ripe and slightly dried fruits by size, discard damaged berries. Wash the plums and soak them in a hot baking soda solution (10 grams of baking soda per liter of water) for one minute. Then rinse the fruit in cold water and air dry. Spread the berries on a baking sheet and dry in the oven. The first three hours at a temperature of 45 ° C, then refrigerate for five hours and dry for ten hours at a temperature of 70 ° C. Such drying will allow you to get fruits without breaking the skin.
Today, berries and fruits can be dried in a special electric dryer. But the process is quite lengthy and must be dried intermittently. Of course, no one canceled compotes, preserves and jams from plums. This is always true in winter and spring, especially since the berries retain most of their useful properties. You can freeze the fruits in plastic bags, but it is recommended to remove the seeds first.
