Canning Plums in Honey Syrup

Make these delicious, home canned plums in a healthy, honey syrup. I also share my best tips for canning plums that hold together and won't be mushy after processing in your water bath canner.

As a child, I was never a fan of home canned plums.

My grandma would preserve plum halves in jars of sweet, sticky syrup. While I liked the juice, I never did care for the soft, disintegrating fruit.

Apart from home canned plum jam, I always thought I didn't like plum preserves.

But after I got married and moved to southern Canada, I suddenly had access to lots of purple Italian plums. It had been years since I'd tried canned plums, so I halved fruit, removed the seeds and preserved a canner load.

Once again, I wasn't impressed with the mushy texture.

Then the thought came to me: why not try canning plums whole? With the skins intact, they'd probably be firmer after processing.

I tried it, and the plums were much nicer! While still soft, they were not an unidentifiable pile of mush. Later, I learned how to pit whole plums and preserved them in a light, honey syrup.

Canned plums with honey are absolutely delicious, and have become one of our favorite, home canned fruits.

Best Plum Varieties for Canning

You can safely preserve any type of plum in a water bath canner, with or without the seed (see National Center for Home Food Preservation for more details).

But for the best texture and flavor, I like canning Italian prune plums. These fruits are freestone, meaning the flesh doesn't cling to the stone, so it's easy to pop out the seed.

Purple Italian plums also have wonderful flavor when preserved in the canner, and create juice with a deep, purply red hue.

Benefits of Honey Syrup

Honey makes a bold, flavorful syrup for plums, home canned peaches, pears, canned sweet cherries and even when canning apricots. Here are more of the benefits!

1. Honey brings depth of flavor to canned fruit that refined sugar doesn't have.
2. Honey is a healthier than refined sugar.
3. Unlike some natural sugars, honey is easy to come by and stores very well.
4. Honey contains trace minerals and vitamins.
5. Honey is still sugar, but it releases slower in the bloodstream and for many, doesn't cause the same blood sugar spike as refined sugar.

How to Pit Whole Plums

When I first started canning plums, I didn't know you could pit them whole! But it's actually quite easy.

You just need a round object the size of your pinky, and it will work as a plunger that pushes the seed through your fruit.

I have a tutorial for you here: How to Pit Whole Plums.

How to Can Plums

Step 1: Source Your Plums

Whether you grow your own, buy plums from a local orchard, fruit stand or the grocery store, try to get firm, unbruised plums for canning.

Step 2: Prepare the Canner and Syrup

Fill your canner, and bring it a boil on your stovetop. Also make up your syrup with water, honey and cloves (or any other spices you wish to use).

Set your syrup on the stove to boil, and keep it hot until you are ready to pour over jarred plums.

Step 3: Rinse and Pit Plums for Canning

Give fruit a quick rinse at the kitchen sink. Proceed to pit whole plums, using a small object about the size of your pinky to push seeds through.

Plums can go directly into jars after removing pits.

Step 4: Stuff Your Jars

This recipe makes 7 quart (1 litre) jars, but you can easily halve this, for 7 pint jars (500 ml). Don't be afraid to firmly stuff the jars. Your plums will soften when canned, and compress together.

Leave about 1 inch of open space at the top of your jars.

Step 5: Pour Hot Syrup into Stuffed Jars

Use a funnel and ladle to pour hot syrup into your jars. Add syrup until plums are just covered. Be sure to leave 1 inch headspace at the top of each jar.

As always, be sure to wipe the jar rims, add a lid and canning band to each one.

Filled jars can go directly in the canner.

Step 6: Process the Plums

When your canner is full, add a lid and turn the heat to high. Process plums according to jar size and your altitude!

When the processing has finished, jars should be lifted and cooled to room temperature before you test each one for a seal.

Sealed jars can be stored on your pantry shelf, while jars that didn't seal should be refrigerated and used in the next few weeks.

Tips for Delicious Canned Plums

Here are some tips for making home preserved plums that are tasty and hold their texture in the canner.

1. Don't halve your plums; remove pits and preserve them whole for extra firmness.
2. Use slightly underripe plums for firmer texture.
3. Canning plums in smaller jars decreases the processing time, which gives you firmer fruit.
4. You can increase or decrease honey used in this recipe, until you are happy with the flavor.
5. If you don't want to add sweetener to plums, can them in homemade plum juice.
6. Add cloves and cinnamon to your syrup for honey spiced plums.
7. You can add vanilla bean to your plums for variation in flavor.

Delicious Ways to Use Canned Plums

Canned plums are soft, and here are some great ways to use them in everyday meal times.

1. Serve canned plums in small bowls at the breakfast table (as you would canned peaches).
2. Gently fold canned plums into baked oatmeal.
3. Add canned plums to your morning smoothies.
4. Heat plums with juice in a small stockpot, then add cornstarch to thicken for a hot pancake or waffle sauce.
5. Combine with low acid fruit (such as blackberries or sweet cherries) in pie, fruit crisp or cobbler.