AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2015 • NEBRASKAland 47
entire plum: skin and all. After picking
a batch of plums she will lay them out
on the porch for a few days to fully
ripen. When soft, the plums are rinsed
in water, then placed in a large pot
and put on the stove and brought to a
steady boil for a half hour. When the
skins burst releasing the pulp and juice,
the juice is ladled off the top, strained
and is ready for jelly making. In years
of plenty, she cans juice, and it remains
good for seven to eight years.
The kettle's remains – pulp, skin, and
pits – are placed in an open roasting
pan. For every eight cups of this
mixture she adds three cups of sugar
and then bakes it for an hour at 350
degrees Fahrenheit, stirring it every 10
minutes to prevent burning. Reducing
the temperature to 250 degrees F
Lucille then bakes it another half hour
or so until the mixture is thick and
dark red in color. During the baking
some pits come to the top and these
are scooped off, but many remain in
the sauce. Lucille has assured me the
pits never split open; the seeds inside
contain the bitter tasting and poisonous
hydrocyanic (prussic) acid. While
the sauce is still piping hot, she adds
two tablespoons of lemon juice as a
preservative for every eight cups and
then places it directly into canning jars.
"I can't remember my Grandma's
Czech name for it, but I think it
translated to 'pit sauce,'" Lucille said.
"She served it with fresh cream and we
kids loved it." I also love it with ice
cream or just plain. The pits are simply
spit out while eating.
Humans are not the only creatures to
partake of plums. Sharp-tailed grouse,
squirrels, raccoons, white-tailed deer,
fox and coyotes also eat them. In late
summer, I often see coyote scat packed
with plum pits. Judging from the scat,
I think coyotes would also advocate for
the American plum as Nebras ka's state
fruit. ■
WILD PLUMS, sliced and pitted, make a delicious pie. A little fresh cream drizzled over the top enhances the flavor.
LUCILLE'S "pit sauce" complete with
plum skins, pulp and pits is a family
favorite.
Gerry Steinauer has been with
the Commission since 1989. Before
that, he worked
for the Nature
Conservancy. This
is the 55th article
Gerry has written
and photographed
for NEBRASKAland
Magazine.
th
fore
