Hi -- I know some of the answers to your questions. American plum self-fertile -- seems to be. I had 2 and then cut down one after it got old and started to go - the other still seems to bear well. There are other plums around the yard, plus various wild Prunus species in the neighborhood, plus various oranmental plum and sandcherries in the neighborhood as well. 2) 5 x 5 foot size. Yeah, I don't see a real problem with it. My 2 American plum seedlings grew naturally to about 7 to 8 feet max, with probably a 6 to 8 foot spread. So, with a little pruning, probably not too much of a problem. 3) Partial shade -- definitely. My surviving one is in about 2/3rds shade now, as the trees around it have gotten larger, and it seems perfectly happy as an understory type tree. It still gets pretty good light because the two trees near it are a Kentucky Coffe and a Sycamore, and both don't start to branch until very high off the ground. 4) Taste -- Well, the fruits of my plum are quite tasty when fully ripe and slightly soft. They have a bit of astringency when not fully ripe. They make wonderful plum sauce, jelly, baked tarts, etc. I've never had the Chickasaw plum, so can't comment. I did plant a beach plum last year, but it's still only a foot tall.

Hi Irish! Like DigDirt, I prefer the taste of roasted tomatoes for my sauce. I like to do things quick and easy, especially when it comes to preserving because it seems like everything comes on at once and it's hard to keep up. Here's the super-easy way I make roasted tomato sauce, which I freeze for use all winter long. I use Roma (plum) tomatoes for a thicker sauce. No amounts listed in my recipe because it really doesn't matter. I just keep roasting pan-fulls until I've used up the tomatoes. Jane's Roasted Tomato Sauce 1. Core and halve tomatoes (I run my thumb up the hollows quickly to push out most of the gel/seeds) 2. Put tomatoes in a BIG bowl. Drizzle with a little olive oil and toss to coat tomatoes. 3. Place tomatoes CUT SIDE DOWN in large rimmed sheet pan, as big as will fit your oven. 4. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 45-60 mins. Tomato skins will begin to shrivel and start to blacken on top, this is good. 5. When sizzley and well-roasted, remove from oven. The tomato skins will be loosened and most of them will slip off the tomato if squeezed lightly with tongs. If you wish to remove skins, go ahead. If not, it's okay too. 6. Place tomatoes in food processor, pulse a few times until thick and chunky consistency (or however you like your sauce). You will probably have to work in batches since the entire pan of tomatoes won't fit in food processor at once. 7. Pour into freezer containers and let cool before placing in freezer. This makes tomato sauce. I like Italian sauce since that's what I mostly use. So at Step #2 I also cut up some bell peppers and onions into big chunks, put them in bowl with tomatoes and oil. Also a few garlic cloves. Sprinkle in salt, pepper, italian spices. Then place in pan and continue in the same way. Easy, can do a lot at once. Can do tomatoes ahead and leave the big oily bowl covered in frig a day or two until you find time to roast. Free time while roasting, versus sauce on the stovetop that you have to keep an eye on. There aren't any finicky rules using this method. (I'm usually not good with finicky rules! LOL ) Enjoy!

Sure if you wish. It's just that its 10x easier and 2x faster to do it with the food mill. Just core them cut them in half, toss in the pot for a bit till soft, then run through the tomato press. And with plum varieties you probably don't even have to core them as the tomato press takes care of it too. You will lose some juice your way so flavor may be slightly affected but its your choice. And if you don't have a food mill/tomato press and plan to make much sauce you will want to get one. Dave

Paula, I spent hours in the kitchen today chopping and slicing and etc. with the end result today being 15 half-pints of bread-and-butter habanero peppers, oodles of dehydrated bird peppers to put up and used to spice up soups, etc., and four batches of Habanero Gold jelly--except I made the Habanero Gold extra-extra hot by using 3/4 C. chopped habaneros, instead of 1/4 C. (You can safely substitute more hot peppers for some of the red bell pepper/red onion mix, as long as they total amount of veggies overall doesn't change.) Yesterday I sliced and chopped almost all the bell peppers and froze them for winter cooking. The bread-and-butter habaneros aren't 100% habanero--the pepper component of the recipe is 25% sweet bell pepper, 25% jalapeno pepper, 35% habanero and 20% mini sweet bells. I was trying to keep these things from being too hot to eat. I'm hoping to leave the rest of the jalapenos on the plants to turn red before I roast them for chipotles and then freeze them. This has been a really good year for our garden, and you've got to make hay while the sun shines! Next year might not be such a good one. It seems like it is feast or famine here....either a dry, droughty year with relatively poor years or a wet year (like this year) with really great yields. The rows and rows of jars are building up in the tornado shelter, which doubles as a root cellar for canned goods, potatoes, onions and winter squash. I haven't counted how many jars of food I've put up, but it is a whole lot. I think I have enough salsa to get us through until next year....but DH and DS keep shaking their head and saying "No, we need more." LOL And, we probably do, because they keep opening jars and eating up the salsa. I think 1 pint jar a week ought to be enough, but they think we need more above and beyond that. I think they are just spoiled. I did ask Chris exactly how many jars of salsa it would take in order for him to feel like we have "enough" and he said "It doesn't matter. No matter how much salsa you make, it won't be enough." See what I am dealing with here? I grew bird peppers in Texas, but didn't bring them with me. Down there in zone 8 they sometimes survived mild winters and they always reseeded themselves, even in our black gumbo clay soil. I started growing them in the late 1980s because a friend of mine grew them. She made the best salsa and brought it to work all the time, and it was hot! She kept telling us it had "only 2 bird peppers in it" although she'd make it at home for herself with 3 bird peppers or for her DH's family with 4 bird peppers. I like to dry them and toss a couple (you don't need many) into soups or stews or chili in the winter time. I have a lifetime supply from this summer so may not grow them again for the next half-century. They are insanely hot! Today, when they were dehydrating, and I was slicing habaneros in the kitchen, I thought all the pepper fumes were going to kill me. I harvest them when the peppers are very bright red. Some people just pull up the whole plant and hang it to dry. Since these peppers are so tiny and have very little flesh, they dry well on the plant for me. I just dehydrated these today so I wouldn't have to worry about them falling off the plant and reseeding themselves. You have to be careful with the bird peppers because if you use too much, no one can eat the food seasoned with them. But, you have to love a pepper that packs so much flavor and heat into such a tiny package. I believe I'll plant fewer peppers next year. I only had about a dozen sweet pepper plants and about a dozen hot pepper plants, but they've all produced like mad...and have new blooms right now in addition to all the peppers in various stages of growth. Between yesterday and today, I've processed maybe 75-80% of the peppers I had sitting in the kitchen, so maybe I can finish that up tomorrow. I hope so. I have some apples and strawberries and want to make apple pie jam and strawberry jam if I ever finish up all the peppers. Dawn