Bring your bucket with you. This way. Try not to be distracted by the swallows overhead. Or the sulphurs and monarchs flitting low through the dunes. Yes, those are osprey you hear and small flocks of shorebirds passing by on their way south.
Hmmm… getting closer, but these aren’t quite ready yet. Keep looking. We’ll come back for these in a week or so. The sun will have worked its magic by then.
That’s what we’re after, but be careful. The ripest beach plums grow surrounded by poison ivy. Don’t be careless with your feet or fingers!
Aha! Here’s what we want. Pick a few, brush off the sand and into your bucket. Be sure to leave a few for the next picker and the raccoons.
Yummy! They look so juicy!
I’m glad you finally got some. We have been hearing about these plums for ages.
Are your hands totally purple?
I wanna go! How large are they, Laura? I can’t quite grasp the scale of them from your photos. Do you have jewelweed blooming nearby? I’ve heard that it is a natural remedy for poison ivy–and it grows near many patches (conveniently) up here.
Very nice! The plums look so yummy!
I’m on the lookout big time for poison ivy – my goal is to never get involved with again.
Lene – I’ve heard that jewelweed will make poison ivy blisters disappear quick – I found this out after my last bout with it so I haven’t tested it out yet.
Wow they look good! Are they really sweet, or are they like some grapes and the only thing you can do is make plum jelly or something? I didn’t know plums would grow here – I always thought they were more a southern thing for some reason.
They are really beautiful.
Here, we have blackberries bursting forth everywhere and the poison oak grows in and amongst it.
Interesting the way something so good grows with something so awful.
Looking forward to hearing how your jelly is.
I grabbed a few while birding at the Hook on Sunday. Yummy!
Up in the northern part of my state where I grew up, we have wild moutain plums. My aunts always knew where they were. So, I have eaten wild plum jam. It’s kind of on the sour side. Or, maybe the aunts were skimpy on the sugar.
Yikes, poison ivy? Thanks for the warning. Here in Central PA, the p.i. grows among the wild black raspberries as well.
Susan: No, no purple hands.
Lene: the small plums are like the size of a marble; the biggest maybe like a green grape. I don’t think we have jewelweed here. How convenient that nature grows it close to poison ivy. 😉
Naturewoman: I got poison ivy once, then went to the Adirondacks and got black-fly bites on top of it. Fun stuff!
Laobiso@: these aren’t like the plums in the supermarket and aren’t exactly sweet. Tart first, then sweet, then tart again. Nice.
Egret’s nest: I think the red ones are just gorgeous!
Patrick: Missed you again. They do make a convenient snack, don’t they? 😉
Silverlight: We’ll see how sweet it is. I added 6 cups of sugar to 4 cups of juice.
dguzman: thanks for stopping by. I’d love to find some wild raspberry bushes.
We don’t have plums up here and thank heaven we don’t have poison ivy. But a friend and I went and picked about 8 gallons of mountain ash berry to freeze to have for later in the winter for some of the song birds that come through the clinic. We picked way too much and are now kicking around making some mountain berry jam. Have you ever tried that?
Never tried it Dave, but most of the recipes I’ve seen suggest adding apples. Those berries are so beautiful – they must make something delicious!
What similar nuisance to poison ivy do you have in Alaska?
😉