I have a bag of under ripe plums............

[northender]

............what shoud I do with them. A neighbour has given me a bag of small not quite ripe plums, this being the time of year that all the neighbours start offloading apples, runner beans etc to me as they know I use them. Apples and runner beans and ripe plums I can do but this lot????? Could I do chutney?

why don't you just wait for them to become ripe

Sadly, Dh has over ripe ones because they just haven't shrunk from having the snip.

What should I do with those?

do they buy too many and just think, 'ooh look, there's northender, she could do with a bag of unripe plums?'

Jam.

sprinkle with a little bit of sugar and bake them. Optionally add crumble topping.

UCM, I'd steer clear of over ripe plums. They leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth.

haha ucm good over ice I believe. your poor dh must be wincing a bit, but don't tell mine, as I'm hoping he'll go for it one day soon.

as for the other plums, baking and into cakes should be fine. And chutney would also be fine... nigella has a wicked in plum sauce in Domestic Goddess.

Cor fuck me FIS, do you think I would. All that pus and stuff - bleughhhhhhhhhhhhhh

fis they're from a tree in their garden don't know whether they'll ripen if just left! Thanks for that UCM I realised after I'd posted I was inviting such comments!

I never underestimate you UCM !

ahhh I see re the fruit. For a minute, I had visions of your neighbours constantly knocking on your door with all these gifts! Sounds fabulous.

The titles got me lots of responses though. Some more constuctive than others possibly? Thanks all!

fis it's great, I come home regularly to a carrier bag of goodies on the doorstep (lots of elderly ladies round here with apple trees in their gardens)

Sorry sorry sorry, Northender.

My actual advice would be dip them in boiling water to make them easy to peel. After that just squidge in your hands until you feel the stone. Take stone and plant it. You never know, it may be a plum tree one day.

All of the stuff should be in a bowl by this time. Add some sugar, preferably brown, and put it in the fridge, Covered in foil.

Tomorrow, put some flour in a bowl, a mugful if you don't have scales.

Put a bit of marg/spread/butter in and make into a crumbly mixture. Add three heaped big spoons, not teaspoons. Get the mixture from the fridge and give it a stir, put the crumble on top and bake at gas mark 5 for abut 30 mins. Serve with custard.

aaah how lovely - they obviously know you're a good cook!

we also keep all the seeds and plant them (in pots) - tis fascinating (for the kids) watching stuff grow (ok, ok, I quite like it too ).

Thanks UCM, will have to hide this thread from dh as he could be next for the dreaded snip

yes, don't let him read it. Dh was almost all for it till he read some bloke's account in the Evening Standard (in full gory detail - all the swollen bollocks, the pain etc. etc. - a very Woe Is Me account) and it just reaffirmed his 'no knife near me knackers' policy.

Years ago dh read something similar in Mail on Sunday magazine and has not been keen on the idea since.

Doesn't fuit ripen if you leave it near bananas?