Friday, December 7, 2007

Wild Plum Jelly


One of my favorite memories of Granny Nelle was her wild plum jelly on those itty bitty biscuits she would make. The wild plum thickets would only produce fruit about every 5 years, and Granny Nelle would go out and pick them all. She then would make this beautiful pink jelly.

One year (1993-ish), there was a bumper crop. My boyfriend at the time and I went out to the ranch to visit. We all decided to load up and go pick plums. By the time we arrived at the thicket, Karl, the ex-boyfriend, decided he was allergic to the bees and wouldn't get out of the truck to pick plums with the rest of us. There was Granny Nelle, in her shorts and pantyhose, picking like crazy, while the lazy boyfriend of her granddaughter sat in the air conditioning! Needless to say, I don't think Karl was her favorite!

Now, back to those biscuits. Does anyone have the recipe? What did she use to cut those out? They weren't any bigger than a silver dollar, and she always had them ready to go before I was even out of bed. They were hard and dense, and I still crave them when I visit Walt. And, I think she baked them on the same pizza pan as when I was a little girl.

Granny Nelle was always interested in what I was doing, and more importantly, HOW I was doing. She was such a good listener and cared so deeply for me. I miss her funny sense of humor and her big hugs, kisses, and pats on the hand. I feel so lucky to have been a part of her family!

3 comments:

Molly said...

I love this photo and what you wrote. I don't know the recipe, but I remember those biscuits well. I thought they were from a can for some reason? She also made some good eggs. I think she fried them in bacon grease. YUM. Could that explain the Poling cholesterol gene?

Meredith said...

I also remember the biscuits being from a can. And the egg beaters! That's what she used for her scrambled eggs because of that darn cholesterol gene.

Anonymous said...

She did make homemade biscuits for awhile. Daddy liked them small becuase he did not like the doughy part in a big biscuit. After a bit, they decided that canned biscuits were okay. To this day, my favorite jelly is the plum jelly. After a "harvest," the plums would sit everywhere in pans and boxes and the house would just smell delicious with the ripening fruit. Ah....the good old days! Thanks for the wonderful post. You girls are the best!